Delaware Weekend

We went to Delaware last weekend so that mom could run in a race. However, Nate and Sean thought the best thing was the swimming pool at the hotel. They don't get many opportunities to swim in March so this was a special treat for them. Nate swims well and Sean paddles along just fine with his floating tube.

On Saturday we went to the Delaware Natural History Museum. It was small compared to some places we've seen before, but it was well done and enjoyable. There were many fascinating exhibits to see. This is a giant statue of a dung beetle complete with dung ball which mom found pretty gross which meant that the kids really, really liked it. Maybe only the dinosaur bones and the robotic ants scored more points with them.

One exhibit allowed the kids to see if they were taller than certain animals. Apparently Sean is shorter than an Emperor Penguin. He's actually slightly taller than it appears. He's leaning back on the wall at an angle. Even so the penguin is much taller. Who knew?

Mom had her big race on Sunday morning. Everyone walked a few blocks from the hotel to the start of the race at Caesar Rodney Square in downtown Wilmington. Everyone gave mom a hug and wished her well. Mom ran all over Wilmington for the next couple of hour while Nate and Sean got one more chance to enjoy the pool.

Mardi Gras

We have a little Mardi Gras tradition here in town, even though we're hundreds of miles north of New Orleans. It's nothing like the "real thing" of course but we do have a small parade where lots of beads get tossed to the crowd. It's wintertime up here in the great north and it's still really cold, as you can see from Nate's red cheeks. This was still early in the evening when he didn't have a lot of beads. He managed to grab a lot more loot before the parade ended.

We put Sean in the stoller and covered him with a blanket to keep him warm. Usually he's up and about for these kinds of events, but he had a stomach flu earlier in the week and he wasn't quite up to strength yet. Don't worry, he's totally recovered now.

Actually, it's not too much different from the normal parades around here other than a few floats. As usual we have the police motorcycles riding in complicated patterns down the parade route, but it looks a lot more interesting at night with all the lights flashing.

And in one of the stranger displays of the multicultural area we live in, even the local kebob restaurant participates, throwing trinkets to the crowd just like everyone else. I wasn't aware that Mardi Gras was a big deal in India but here you go.

Air and Space Museum

With a 3-day weekend you better believe we made plans to get out of the house for at least a few hours, so we hopped in the car and drove out to the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum out by Dulles Airport. Sean has been fixated on rockets and airplanes the last few weeks and he was excited to see them in person. Nate always loves going there too. Here they are posing in front of an SR-71 Blackbird spy plane that takes up a good chunk of the central display floor.


Nate's had a fixation on touchscreens ever since he got his Nintendo DS for Christmas this year (evil machine!). He kept going over to the display terminals that provided a 360 degree view inside of various cockpits. It was a battle to pull him away from the displays even though there were dozens of genuine airships and rockets all around him. He doesn't know it yet but video game restrictions are coming soon so take one last look at him while he's in his natural element.


We stopped for lunch after we toured through the first half of the building. We actually timed it pretty good. By the time we left the cafe to see the rest of the exhibits it was pretty full.



Sean was a little character as usual. He just doesn't like to have his picture taken. This was the best we could do after about five attempts. He was well behaved during the visit though, and walked through the entire facility without a stroller.