The Shamrock/Emerald Isle Classic

Well, this year was a disappointment like so many years in the past. Navy just doesn't have the poundage to take on Notre Dame's pounding. Notre Dame's coach was very generous with his comments at the end and all of the Midshipmen we saw on the telly looked hung over.

Whilst watching the game, Craig and I were reminiscing about the last Navy-Notre Dame game that was held in Dublin in 1996. At that time, the contest was dubbed The Shamrock Classic and was held at Croke Park. We were lucky enough to be in attendance with dear friends, roommates and classmates. It was also a drubbing and "set a record for the longest winning streak over an annual collegiate opponent at 33 games" (Wikipedia) but the Guinness brewery took care of any disappointment at the time.

We have such fond memories of that trip: following a hurricane from the east coast of the US only to experience it again at Shannon airport and in County Cork at Blarney Castle; driving on the other side of the road for the first time next to large stone walls just inches from the car; the Cliffs of Moher; Connemara; much-appreciated ham and cheese toasties in a deserted village pub; the Dingle Peninsula; "some say it's pagan"; Old Man Callahan's House of Abstinence; a different type of what was called "orange juice" in every B&B we stayed; that comedy show that none of us could understand - were they even speaking English?; that giant people mover being driven across the Connor Pass (a very tiny road on the side of a mountain) by none other than Craig's roommate and us running into him there (almost litruhlee); returning home to Evan who was just over one year old and how he wouldn't even look at us, he was so mad we left him with his grandparents who spoiled him rotten the entire week! Aaah, good times, good times.

Navy lost? Oh, well.

Dog Days of August

Lots of stuff going on this past month. I returned to my position as taxi driver during the last few weeks as Finn and Owen attended a cooking camp with an international foods theme. They made Mexican, Indian, French, Japanese and Italian foods and they were absolutely delicious. Every day they exited, they exclaimed how it was the best camp I had ever chosen for them. It helped that they both like to eat!

Owen has also been doing some tutoring to get him up to speed in the math department. Three years in England and his level of attentiveness didn't necessarily benefit him. Tutoring definitely has.

Evan was accepted to a highly competitive work-study program with a nearby Federal Government agency. We were told that approximately 3,000 high school kids apply and that only 100 are given an offer. We are very proud of him. This means that I will once again be a chauffeur getting him to work. All the more reason for him to finally get his driver's license, eh?

Since Evan is doing a half-day of high school and a half-day of work study, he did not have room in his schedule for a math class as he is still short a social studies credit (US History) because he did not take it in the UK since I do not believe it is even offered. Therefore, an option was presented to us by his brilliant high school counselor. She suggested he try to enroll in a college level calculus course at the community college which is located directly across the street from the high school conveniently enough. So last week, I took Evan over for a half-day speed enrollment which included an application, a math placement test to determine if he was ready for calculus (which he aced), a meeting with an adviser, a signature from the high school counselor, registration and payment. The best part is that since he is still in high school, the course fee was half price which sort of offsets the high-priced textbook I just ordered online.

Oh, and today is the first day of school.

 The Senior and Freshman

 The Senior

 The Freshman

 The Clan

The Seventh Grader who looks the most relaxed of all, even with a rain splattered shirt (at least I hope that is rain!)

Car Wash

My car was really a mess so I went through the car wash. I was like a little kid because it was one where you stay inside the car.

What fun!

Boston Swan Song

This is my third and final trip to Boston for the year, I promise! On our first family trip, we started at the beginning of the Freedom Trail which is a trail taking tourists through the main historical sights of Boston which relate to the Revolutionary War. Well, after three visits, I finished the Freedom Trail at the Bunker Hill Monument (which is actually situated on top of Breed's Hill which is darned confusing if you ask me).

I started my day at the Charlestown Bridge which is an ancient and rusty bridge that has a great pedestrian crossing if one enjoys walking over see-through grates pretty much the entire length. Yikes! It affords a nice view of the Kazim Bridge and the Charles River.

Charlestown is where Paul Revere began his infamous midnight ride and is also the home of Samuel F.B. Morse of Morse Code fame.

Next, the trail goes through City Square Park

 

which has a great fountain

and town sign

and a pretty view of the Old Court House.

 Sage advice

Then I made my way up the hill

 

on a very hot morning (phew!) to the Bunker Hill Museum which is located across the street from the monument in the old Charlestown Public Library which is a pretty building in and of itself.

 This was drawn when Maryland was abbreviated as just M, not MD.

After a looksee and much needed water break, I headed up to the monument

 

which is just a monument that looks a lot like the Washington Monument really, but one you can climb 294 steps to its top.

I was all ready to go just as a family came down and the fit parents looked utterly exhausted from the climb and they said it was boiling inside the stairwell. Not one to dabble in heatstroke, I took their word for it and turned around.

 Very dapper Revolutionary

 

More sage advice

 

The battle flag, I assume.

So I headed back to subway on another route through Charlestown proper and got some food to eat as I walked. I had some time to kill so I went to the Boston Public Garden again to catch a glance at the swan boats made so famous in Make Way for Ducklings. Not only did I see them,

I also saw an ice cream truck with this painted on it

 

and the license plate says "SWAN". Cool!

It was time to go get Evan from camp so I headed over to MIT and sat through the camp ceremonies and got to see what Evan had been working on the past couple of weeks. He and a friend, Jack,

 

co-wrote a program for a video game called Cowboy. It was pretty neat. Evan did most of the programming whilst Jack did most of the artwork. Very well-teamed. I was duly impressed.

 We headed to the airport. Our flight was exactly on time and I must say, Express parking is the way to go at BWI. The shuttle is way emptier than the Daily Garage parking, they give you a slip of paper with your parking space on it and you hand that to the driver who delivers you right to your car, they load your bags into the bus and into your trunk if you want AND it's $2 cheaper per day than the daily garage which made me feel free to tip the driver.

Wildwood, Cape May and Margate, NJ

We went to New Jersey last weekend for a quick beach getaway. My sister and brother-in-law have been renting a small beach place all summer for like forever in Wildwood Crest, NJ we were able to mooch off of them for a couple of days when it was empty.

 

It is nice when residents have a sense of humor as cars line up in front of their house to get to the beach.

Wildwood Crest is nice because it is sort of neighborhoody where they are and far enough away from the pier area. The beaches are wide and not crowded and clean.

Apparently, there are a lot of turtles crossing the street as well.

Cape May is a ten minute drive away so we went there our second afternoon after sitting through a torrential downpour on the beach which lasted about 15-20 minutes and then barely missing another around 2PM. The beach was great other than that.

The Cape May lighthouse drew us in and we went to see it and the nearby WWII bunker. It is located on the southernmost point of New Jersey.

 

 

The next day, we were a little sunburned and since we were heading home that day anyway, we decided to head a bit north because I wanted to see 

 

Lucy the Elephant in Margate, NJ. 

She is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and I have always wanted to see her. She was built in 1881 and you can read about the rest of her history here. 

 

Pretty toenails! 

 

What Lucy sees - view from her right eye

 

Lucy's favorite food

 

It was a fun side trip although Finn would disagree as he refused to even get out of the car. 

Aaaah, teenagers!

Gangsta Style

Last Friday a group of friends from Cheltenham met at the I-195 Park and Ride to catch a limo down to DC for dinner and to cruise around the monuments at dusk. I arrived first with my friend, Nancy, right behind me. We chatted for a few seconds and the limo pulls up and it was all we could do to not burst out laughing. The limo was a Humvee type and shiny white. We definitely felt a bit gangsta. I will say it was really fun to not be the driver into DC on a Friday afternoon and to sit back and relax whilst drinking champagne and ignore the niggling thought of how much gas the gangsta mobile was guzzling.

This excursion was the brainchild of Nancy who planted the seed. I saw a Groupon for a six-hour limo ride for eight people including two stops and the rest was history. Our driver, Arlester, was very familiar with DC and was a real treat.

Our first stop before dinner was the USMC Memorial in Arlington. We stopped and got out for a few pictures and Arlester took a few photos of his own. I think he was as excited to be there as we were.

 

 

Then we headed to a Turkish/Lebanese restaurant called Zaytinya. 

Absolutely delicious. Impeccable service.

Hummus and hot out of the oven flat bread to die for.

Everything is served mezze (as a small dish) which lends to sharing so we paired up with our nearest seatmate and chose two or three dishes each to share. This was a great idea. I think my favorite dish was the carrot, apricot and pine nut fritters with a pistachio puree. 

 

In addition, the Turkish coffee was the.real.deal.

After dinner, we cruised around the Mall, the Lincoln Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial. I was surprised at how many groups of people there were at 9PM! I definitely want to play tourist in DC overnight sometime soon.

Oh yeah, it's my birthday!

So today started out sort of stressful. I had to take Finn to the hospital for a spinal tap, or lumbar puncture in the doctor vernacular. He has been diagnosed with papilledema which is swelling of the optic nerve. It was noticed during a routine eye exam when Finn's eyes were dilated. He had never had an eye exam with dilation so we don't know if this is a new development or not. Anyway, he was referred to a neuropthamologist who ordered a barrage of tests including a visual fields test (normal results), photographs of his optic nerve (cool and definitely not normal), an MRI to check for a brain tumor (negative), a blood test for Lyme disease (negative) and finally this lumbar puncture which did not show any increased cerebrospinal fluid pressure and all signs look good. I was not particularly worried that we would get bad results today, just more worried about the procedure itself and the fact that since Finn is a minor, he required anesthesia during the procedure. Well, the procedure took maybe a half hour from start to finish and he was just fine. In fact, the anesthesia part was pretty funny. Finn is a hoot. The reason I wasn't really that worried is that some of the McCarters have the exact same condition so it is probably genetic/physiological but we decided to do the test because I just needed to know everything was fine. The prognosis all looks good. Afterwards, Finn was pretty much ravenous since he hadn't eaten in 16 hours so we went to the nearest Five Guys and we both indulged since a good burger cures everything. We came home and vegged out. I even tried to take a nap, but my neighbor's dogs prevented that. (If you are a neighbor and are reading this via Facebook, it was not your dogs.) Craig came home and cooked a delicious salmon dinner. I got some awesome gifts, exactly what I wanted, including a surprise: a pink Orioles ball cap! Evan actually called from camp to wish me a happy birthday. Craig and I went for a long walk with Owen trailing behind on his skateboard. Yeah, figure that one out. At least he still doesn't mind being seen with us. I should be grateful. And everyone in Baltimore who experienced this beautiful, gorgeous day of weather should be grateful to me because I ordered it exactly the way it occurred as my birthday wish!