Train to Boston

Ed and I had an adventure today, riding the Amtrak from Baltimore to Boston. It turned out to be a very comfortable, relaxing way of getting there.

The train wasn't crowded, and we enjoyed bulkhead seats with 10 feet of legroom, and a good view of the passing scenery. We also had time to do two crosswords and take a few catnaps as well!

We had another adventure, having rented our first Airbnb apartment. It was in the historic Whitwell house, a brownstone, right off Boston Commons.

It is a comfortable room with a kitchenette and bathroom, and happily, much less expensive than a hotel room here!

We walked through the Boston Commons and went out to dinner. The weather is 59 degrees and windy. We're hoping for warmer tomorrow!

After dinner we met at the Common Burial Grounds for a ghost tour with Haunted Boston.

Our tour guide, Meagan, did a terrific job telling us about murder and mayhem in historic Boston. So much so, that it was scary walking home in the dark afterwards! Tomorrow we walk the Freedom Trail!

Purging

The Regers dropped by yesterday to relieve us of our patio furniture. It is nice having friends help us divest ourselves of our worldly possessions!

Practically every day we take a car (or two) full of things to Goodwill. It feels good to be getting rid of so much. It starts to feel like a burden when you see how much junk you have!

Eldersburg has a very convenient Goodwill store with a drive in drop off. As you can see here, we are not the only ones doing spring cleaning. They are bursting at the seams.!

Some people complain because Goodwill makes money off our free stuff. I, for one, am grateful not to have to throw it in a landfill!

Stammtisch Überraschungsfest

This might be my last Stammtisch meeting, unless we are able to squeeze one more in in July. We meet the first Monday of every month, and the first Monday in July is the 4th, so we'll have to pick a new day.

The group surprised me yesterday with a goodbye party! I couldn't have been more surprised--they had balloons, cake, chips, and fruit! It was a delicious way to remember the good times we've had. We played two fun games and talked about our lives in German. I'm going to miss this group!

Goodbye kids and Bells

We took Brittany, John, Mabel and Crystal to the airport yesterday. It was a fun visit, and we're sorry to see them leave. The sorrow is somewhat mitigated knowing we'll see them again in only 6 weeks!

Last night was my last bell concert. I've enjoyed playing with the Freedom Area Ringers for the past four years. It has been an interesting and fun community. I wonder if that was my last time touching a bell or if I'll find another opportunity to ring in Utah!

Gettysburg

We spent Wednesday at Gettysburg, enjoying the beautiful day outside as well as the museum and cyclorama.

The kids had their picture taken with Abraham Lincoln, who plays such an important role in the history of the site.

What would a trip be without finding some part of it covered in scaffolding? This time it was the soldier's memorial in the cemetery.

We had terrific hamburgers at the Blue and Gray Bar and Grill on Lincoln square. We all got the Union Burgers, as you can see by the flags.

We drove around the audio tour and stopped at Little Round top to see an overview of the battle.

Along the way we took every opportunity to play with cute little Mabel. She loved Crystal's cheek patting and blowing air on her.

We came home and made kabobs and ate dinner on the deck.

For our last night together we went all out and made s'mores before going to bed! Life just doesn't get any better than that!

Assateague Island Wildlife Refuge

We were happy to see the sun come out this morning. Ed and I started the day with a long walk along the Ocean City Boardwalk.

Then, we headed over to Assateague Island to see the wildlife. We enjoyed the visitor's center, where they had a movie about the wild horses that live on the island.

We started out with a hike in the sand dunes, where we found out that we should have applied mosquito repellent before starting out!

We didn't find any horses, but did see a couple of small frogs!

Mabel took a nap hanging in her baby pack!

We did another short hike in a forest, where it was much cooler because of the trees!

We saw a snowy egret  and a few terrapins.

We took a break to introduce Mabel to the beach. The water scared the living daylights out of her! It scared us a little, too, as it was pretty cold!

Crystal, Ed and Brittany played a game, called "See how close we can get to a wave without getting wet." They all lost!

We got our closest view of the ponies just as we were leaving the park. It was like they lined up for the tourists as they left the island.

I even got within 30 feet of this last pair of beautiful wild horses. My dream was fulfilled. I've been dying to see the wild ponies ever since reading Misty of Chincoteague as a child. Glad we were able to do it before we left Maryland!

Memorial Day

Memorial Day dawned bright and sunny, despite the many dire weather forecasts about it! We took a morning walk down Oakland Road, while the sun was still shining.

OK, Mabel, took a morning nap along the road.

We drove to Ocean City, where we holed up in our hotel suite for an hour or so waiting for the rain to stop. We had made a strategic error, as it was sunny in Eldersburg all day!

When the rain didn't stop, we grabbed our umbrellas and ventured out onto the boardwalk. It was nice having it all to ourselves!

We enjoyed getting a bucket of the much touted Thrasher's French fries! They closed up shop after serving us, as there just wasn't enough people out to justify staying open!

We brought home a couple of buckets of Fisher's popcorn, which helped tide us through the evening as we played through a few more board games.

We went to bed fat and sassy and somewhat wet!