232. Happy New Year!

Week 232  12/31/19

We often get together with this group for New Year's Eve (and many other times too). Everyone looks dour in all of my pictures but it really was a fun night with great food.

231. Finally Christmas! Baltimore

Week 231  12/25/19

What says Christmas more than an 8-month old child surrounded by two loving parents and four grandparents. And LOTS of gifts, some sent by aunts and uncles. We also celebrated Hanukkah on the 24th.

Oscar accompanies his mommy and Nana (Sherry) and Pops (Murray) to a Christmas Eve service at a Baltimore church. Of course he wore suspenders and a bow tie.

Paul and I stayed at the downtown Hyatt. Here is our view. The room rates were very inexpensive, because of the holiday, I guess. The breakfast buffet was the best I've had at a hotel.

Gillian had to work so Ben and Oscar went with us to the Maryland zoo.

One day Paul and I were on our own so we went to the National Aquarium. We saw some areas that we had not visited before.

Then we walked around the city. We saw the homonym park.

We read about the history behind this National Katyn Memorial to Polish nationals by Soviet forces.

We had lunch at Faidley's in  Lexington Market. World's best crab cakes?




There were many beautiful buildings to see, but some were in disrepair like this old theatre.

This image on a sign shows a bit of what the theatre used to look like. 

The huge clown heads in this store front were frightening.

We planned to continue our walk to the Walters Art Museum but we had some trouble finding it and when we came across the Maryland Historical Society Museum we decided to go there instead. We are glad we got to see it. There were some wonderful exhibits of history, quilting and local art. Also there was a special exhibit called "Spectrum of Fashion. Here is a dress worn by Wallis Simpson. I love the monkeys.

231. Need to relax

Week 231  12/10/19

Life is getting hectic with holiday plans and shopping. With the week drawing to a close, an afternoon spent listening to an audio book and soaking in the hot tub can be the kind of quiet "adventure" we need now.

230. Horticulture with lights

Week 230  12/13/19

We went to Elm Bank, the New England Wildflower Society property in South Natick, for their holiday displays.

We skipped the ride on a horse-drawn carriage and walked through the gardens.

This tree is surrounded by pipes that play sounds when struck. We have similar pipes in our attic that are gathering dust except oh the occasional Christmas party when we play tunes with them. This tree gave us the idea to set up the pipes outside somewhere. 

Inside was a silent auction for decorated Christmas trees. Many of them included gift certificates and expensive gifts.

Here is one with a knitting theme.

 A very extensive model railroad was set up.

229. just a movie

Week 229   12/2/19

We saw Downton Abbey. Neither of us thought it was very good but it was fun and a good way to distract from pre-holiday craziness.