We kept busy this past weekend.  First up, Friday was spent getting my haircut and doing some shopping.  Boring.  Well, except I may have actually found a hairdresser that I want to go back to.  It only took 3.5 years.  I shouldn't jinx it just yet though.

 

Next up, Saturday morning was spend visiting Washington Monument State Park, out in Maryland, NOT DC.  The park was beautiful and it was attached to the Appalachian Trail, so we did a little hiking as well.  Anna can only handle about an hour in her backpack, and that is all about all we can handle too.  She is getting heavy.  Riley could have gone all day.  

We let Anna run around on the playground afterwards.  She was really good at climbing the stairs and going down the slide herself, up until some other kids joined us.  Then, there were tears because they were playing on Anna's slide.  We learned about taking turns, went down the slide a few times more, and hit the road.   

On Sunday we had our usual met-up with Erin and family for our run and breakfast, except, this time we managed to run 3.51 miles, which might be our longest yet.  We also managed to score the BIG table at Open City.  It was amazing and everything I thought it would be.  Sean said it best, "I think I should order more food because I have the table space."  After Anna took a marathon 3-hour nap, we headed to Del Ray to catch the Halloween Parade.  It was really cute and Anna loved waving hello to everyone.  

 

And now it is Monday, boo.

Life is good when you have friends that live on the beach.

Here are pictures from Assateague Island National Seashore.  I really only wanted to go here so Anna could get another stamp in her passport, but I am so happy we visited and I would love to go back.  It was beautiful.  It was so serene and peaceful, and had some of the softest sand.  Their campgrounds looked really nice too.  We did not see any horses up close but with all of the warning pamphlets you get on the way in, I am OK with that.

 

Ocean City, Maryland

We spent Memorial Day weekend at the beach.  I am not sure where to start with my recap of our trip to Ocean City.  Do I focus on the positive or just be honest?  Hmmm... 

  

The positive:   We were at the beach.  It does not matter if it is too chilly to swim - putting your feet in the sand, listening to the waves, and watching for dolphins is the best.  It might have been a bit better if we could have soaked our feet in the ocean, but the Atlantic is always too cold for swimming anyway.

Anna loved playing in the sand, but she did not love getting pelted in the head with sand from all of the wind.

We escaped to Rehoboth Beach, Deleware (hooray - new state for Kyle and Anna!) and it is amazing what a few miles north can do for a beach town.  There were good restaurants, nice shops, a clean boardwalk, and actual families walking around.  

We visited Assateague Island National Seashore which was beautiful, but I have not gotten to those pictures yet, so they will have to wait. 

We had fantastic donuts at The Fractured Prune and a very good lunch at The Pig & Fish.

The negative:  Ugh.  Ocean City.  I am OK with the cheesy t-shirt/hermit crab shops.  I am fine with Pirate-themed restaurants and cheap rum punch.  I am even cool with a few, a few, teenagers hanging out on the boardwalk.  I am not OK with every single 18-22 year old visiting Ocean City this past weekend being super loud (all.night.long), drunk, and leaving puke on the boardwalk for my morning run.  I am not OK with there only being Pirate-theme restaurants.   Occasionally I would like to eat something that was not frozen forever before heating it up for my consumption.   Finally, it would be nice to visit a shop that had quality sweatshirts, since it was freezing all weekend.

I guess I am not a fan of Ocean City.  Our super overpriced, because it was a holiday, hotel felt old and sad, we did not sleep because of all the loud people, sirens, and motorcycles until 3am, and our only hope for a good time was to head out of town.  That is not a way to spend a vacation!  I was so happy to get home but I was almost angry because we wasted time and money on such a disappointing place.  Oh well, now I know.  And the more you know...

You can see all of the pictures here.

Frederick, Maryland

 

Last weekend, Erin, Kyle, Anna, and I ventured out to Frederick, Maryland.  The purpose of the trip was to visit Chartreuse and Co. for their annual barn sale.  The property is located close to downtown Frederick and has a couple of houses and a couple of barns full of stuff.  They basically take old furniture and household items and turn them into new, cute finds.  Their lawn was full of garage sale items, one barn was filled with old furniture that has not been touched yet, and another barn was turned into a store showcasing painted furniture, cute fabrics, and fun home decorations.  It was fun to look around, but no one ended up buying anything.  I thought the barn/store was a bit overpriced and the other barn was a bit overwhelming.  I liked a table that was on the garage sale lawn but could not figure out if someone had already bought it.  It was weird, but the place was beautiful.

So from the barn sale, we went to downtown Frederick.  It was really cute with artists on the street

and colorful buildings.

There were buildings with history,

 

churches,

 

and courtyard swimming pools that I coveted.

After walking around a bit we ate lunch at Magoo's and dessert at the Candy Kitchen,

while Anna worked on her top left tooth.

It was a fun day and nice to get out and about.  Downtown Frederick was much bigger than I was expecting.  We did not do a lot of shopping, and it seemed like a lot of stores were still closed at 11am on a Saturday, but I would go back and look around some more. 

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