A day at the National Zoo with Lochen and family

My girlfriend Lochen, from back at NAU in Flagstaff (grad school), was in town this weekend to see her family. Her grandmother has lived in Dupont Circle in DC for years. She arranged to go to the National Zoo with us. We had a great time. Bree and I invited Mimi since she loves the zoo. Lochen had her boys - John (4-1/2) and Eli (20mos), and her sister-in-law Jenny and her husband Mike. Here are some highlights from the day. We miss you Lochen!!

Some good beach pics

Eating out, the good, the bad, the ugly

We had an interesting time eating out with Bree on this trip. Basically, she didn't want to sit still, eat with utensils, or use manners at all. She loved Rivercity Cafe, where you ate peanuts, threw shells on the floor, wrote on the walls, and hung out on wooden booths. We went there twice knowing she would fit in. Our nice night out at Captain Benjamins was rushed becasue Bree wanted to go back downstairs to the play area where they had a merry go round, pretend boat and dress up area and other toys. She basically ate cake for dinner as this was the only way we could get her to sit down for a moment . . . We ate a lot of pizza and sandwiches!

Brookgreen Gardens

This was part of a 9,000 acre landholding of American sculptors, Anna Hyatt Huntington and husband John (?). Large outdoor sculptures, gardens, a zoo of SC wildlife and domestic animals from the 18th and 19th century were part of the fun. We followed a volunteer at feeding time and got good close-ups of an alligator, four swimming otter, ibis, a red and grey fox, several horse, chickens and raptors. We also saw a skink running around. Bree really liked the tram ride. This was a beautiful, but very hot place!!

Bree and the beach

Bree enjoyed the beach at first. Here is her first adventure into the water. She liked jumping waves and splashing. The problem was once sea water and sand got on her hands, face and then eyes. Then she would scream bloody murder making all of the beachgoers pity her and look at us like, well, I think you'd better take that one in to the pool (or bed). Bree actually closed her eyes to stave off the pain/burning and fell asleep! We were shocked. It was only like 10 in the morning. She curled up on my lap and crashed. I was finally able to lay her in the tent, only after some fussing. This was the only time we took chairs, tents, etc out to the beach to relax. We learned quickly that less was more and only took shovels and cameras!!

Alligators . . .

Who knew . . . alligators at the beach?? We visited Huntington Beach State Park south of Murrells Inlet to go on a guided alligator walk. We soon left the group as we saw a gator heading east. There was only one (of 75 in the park) in view. It was in the mid 90s and they prefer cooler temps. The naturalist assumed they were hiding out in the mud.

Let's go fly a kite

The kite was easy to fly on the beach. Just hold it up and the wind caught hold. Pop Pop bought this one for Bree when she was a baby and we finally opened it for this August 2008 trip to Myrtle Beach, SC.