two days of adventure!

so, apparently I'm to bog about boating, so here goes: we went boating. We took a canoe around the lake at Crockett park (I think its lake Germanna but I'm not actually sure at all) for about two hours. The Widge loved it.

Today we went to the Smithsonian Museum of Natual History, or whatever their fancy official title is (I'm actually a card-carrying Smithsonian member, so I don't have to be all formal and official). We got to ride the metro (with our new favorite, Orange Bear, courtesy of Beloved Venerable Uncle Nick. On the way home, it was Orange Bear, Cuddlesaurus, Dinosaur, and "Bat" who is also a dinosaur)

The Widge loves Natural History! But honestly, who doesn't love the opportunity to squint into the yawning jaws of a crocodile?! (this was actually a severed and clear-coated crocodile head. The Widge marched right up with his magnifying glass, peered closely at the teeth, and said: "hmmm...")We saw dinos, bugs (Widge held a fat green caterpillar), skeletons of all sorts of things, the super-cool new mammal hall, but not the giant squid. The giant squid wasn't receiving callers today. I think he's on holiday or something. He'll be back (and better than ever) on 27 September. Mark your calendars, go ahead, I'll wait.

Also today, the Widge rode his first carousel!
This is the Carousel on the Mall, which is a little carousel, but cool enough to give "Carousel on the Mall" stickers to all their young riders. No sticker for me. I must not have been enthusiastic enough.
Or maybe the fact that I didn't actually sit on one of the little horses counted against me. Whatever.

Sorry for the general lack of history museum photos. Its too exciting to be pausing for photos. The world of history is a fast-paced, adrenaline fueled roller-coaster, or at least it is when you're 2.

In other news, I recently got an e-mail from the Disney company (in response to a request I'd made), to the effect that they have no plans to release either "Fly with Von Drake" or "Scrooge McDuck and Money" on DVD any time soon. This is a travesty. Stop what you're doing now and send them an e-mail about it. I'll wait.

Are you back? that was actually the end of my post!

Flying Circus

we went to the flying circus! It was awesome! you should all go!


check out my video! I actually took this myself, theres even sound! This is to make up for the fact that my little camera is too weak to take any really good photos of the stunts.
it was balloon weekend, so they inflated the Remax balloon right in the middle of the airshow, just to demonstrate how they do it. Naturally I was too busy watching to take photos of anything really interesting.

we met the Baron. His mustache is very decorative, and his good jokes totally made up for his bad accent.

we got to actually see the planes up close, peek in the cockpit, check the flaps and all, which is way more than you get at the Smithsonian.
the planes were very cool.

the stunts were extremely cool. there were rolls and dives and crazy maneuvers of all varieties.

the Widge loved it (he actually insisted on getting in this plane: "Widge sit there!" he demanded, so the pilot hoisted him in, and he proceeded to "fly".

it was hot, but totally worth it.

Darned Hobby.

so, every so often you are forcibly reminded that this is, in fact, a knitting blog. See, i made this sock. Can you see all the crazy cables? Yup, I cabled without a cable needle, using size 00 double-points. This is Eunny Jang's fabulous bayrische socke, using Louet Gems, and it looks great, and took forever.
and, it doesn't fit.

The long-awaited fort

presenting: Fort Spud!
hooray for Fort Spud!
we love it!

in other news, our cute little town does a little outdoor thingie on the first Friday of every month.

we live in such a cute town! Plus, they have old cars here! I love these photo-heavy posts! There's less actual work involved!
(this last one is with a plane and a wing-walker from the Flying Circus. Which we plan to see someday.)

Sadly, at the moment, Widgie has a cold. This has not, however, stopped the plans to continue kicking Fort Spud up a notch or two. If there were a show called "Pimp my Fort", we would totally be the stars. Stay tuned for updates!

We love Children's Museums

and honestly, who doesn't? This week it was the outstanding Children's Museum of Richmond, which I highly recommend to any of you who can con some unwitting parent into lending you their offspring. It is, in fact, a museum clearly designed for the little boys of the world, in that theres a whole lot of water.
water cascading down ramps and splashing out of fountains
The fountain, actually, is part of a model of the James river, complete with locks and bridges. I personally know nothing about the James (other than that the mouth of the river is at Jamestown, founded 1607, the first permanent colonial settlement, and both the river and the town were names for James I of England, who was also the king of Scotland and son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and I promise you, I didn't wiki this at all. But one of you should, and point out all my errors in your comments. Anyway, none of this helps me with the river's geography), but I seriously doubt there is such a large and impressive fountain located anywhere on the river. Anyway, as if all the indoor moisture wasn't enough, there was also an outdoor river!
which was unfortunately located near a giant sandbox, resulting in a pair of extremely wet, sandy shorts which I suddenly remember are still in the backseat of my car (whoops!)

If water isn't your thing, there are also giant dinosaur eggshells, and who doesn't love those?!
I actually have a photo of my buddy Nat (age 24, at the time) pretending to hatch out of a dino eggshell at the kiddie area of Busch Gardens. The enjoyment of dinosaur eggshells knows no age limits!

we also enjoyed, naturally, the little racecars scattered around for some reason
the lack of steering wheel was somewhat vexing, but the wheels actually turned (you can't really tell in the photo, but the car is up on blocks so it doesn't go anywhere) so our need for functioning wheels was satisfied. But best of all, they have a cave!
it was the most realistic fake cave I've ever seen! there were stalactites and stalagmites and all! There were stuffed animals representing typical cave dwellers! (Apparently raccoons, possums, porcupines, snakes, and rats all live in caves, in addition to the more famous bears, bats, and blind cave fish. I suppose it all makes sense, but I never really considered it before, mostly because when you tour a cave, there isn't generally much wildlife.) The Widge was a fearless spelunker, crawling through tunnels, cuddling the various beasts (making me very grateful that they were just stuffed animals. In real life, I would imagine that you just can't dash up to the average possum and give him a big squeeze), and generally enjoying cave life. If you ask, he will give you a list of animals who live in caves ("Bats! possum, buggies, bats!").

There was also a large treehouse to climb through, a little grocery store so kids could pretend to shop or stock shelves (my kid pretended to eat all the fruit in the produce section), and a crawl-through model of the digestive system, which burped every few moments. Widgie refused to go in, and who can blame him? If there's one thing cartoons have taught us, it is: do not willingly enter any giant mouth. (well that, and the fact that gravity doesn't kick in until you look down, but I assure you, that one doesn't hold true in the real world, much to my dismay). He did, however, urge the system to say "'Scuse!" after every belch.

We did finish primary construction on Fort Spud, but the slide isn't up yet. My understanding is tat we plan to complete it over the weekend, so stay tuned for photos!