It Was the Best of Times...

About a year ago we planned to use this spring break to go to Japan and leave the kids with dear Nikki. However, plans changed. Instead, we took the whole family on another trip to Maryland's State Parks. This time it was Janes Island, on the very southern end of Maryland on the Delmarva Peninsula. During our last night there, Chuck and I decided this trip was a bunch of really high highs and really low lows. I said it was a trip of "the best of times, the worst of times." But even the lows weren't the worst. Instead, like the Simpsons have said, we'll call them the "blurst of times."

The Best of Times...The Blurst of Times
1. Friends offering their boats...Finding out the park doesn't rent parks until April

2. Awesome traffic to/fro (such a rarity for us DC-ites)...The noise of the boat tie-downs vibrating on the top of the car for three hours

3. The adorable, perfectly-sized, gas-log-fire-warmed cabin that was right on the water...Less sleep at night with boys who weren't too sure of the new place

4. Sun with relatively-warm weather on Tuesday...Snow (snow!) on Monday

5. Totally deserted park all to ourselves...no real services since park isn't quite open

6. Being resourceful and finding things to do inside when it's snowing (snowing!)...Ignoring kids while working on a puzzle

7. Ollie sleeping nearly the entire paddle back from the beach...Ollie crying nearly the entire paddle to the beach

8. The awesome pizza and staff at The Pizza Shoppe (they even gave the boys "play dough" while we waited for our food)...I got nothing. All the food we ate was good (even the Life cereal for breakfast)

9. Nobody was seriously hurt nor frozen after the spill into the water at kayak take-out...Yep, that's right: we all took a bit of a polar plunge

10. The memory card was salvageable after the spill into the brackish water of the Bay (see the pictures below)...The rest of the camera, not so much (notice no pictures after the kayak trip)

At the end of it all, we still had a great time. The boys enjoyed themselves, and we enjoyed the boys. It was just nice to get out of town.

Taking a walk along the river. The actual island is on the other side of the water.


From the bird watching tower.


Fun with snacks


Listening to music


Playing with capsule-turn-sponge


Displaying how Ollie uses headphones


Getting ready for the paddling!


The destination: a beach on the Chesapeake Bay side of the island


We kept laughing that Ollie looked like a Weekend-at-Bernie's fake person


But no, a real little guy was in there


See how close our cabin was to the water?


Next Maryland State Park: Susquehanna!