St. Mary's Crab Festival

We have lived in Maryland for nine months and we have yet to "pick a crab". With time running out we decided the 26th Annual St. Mary's Crab Festival was a must-go event. After our routine Sunday morning trip to the pool, we headed to the fairground, slathered on some sunscreen, and bought ourselves a half dozen blues. A small amount by local standards, but we had a crab cake sandwich and a hamburger to help fill us up.

After being laughed at by a true local, we got our technique straightened out and soon were elbow deep in crab meat, butter, vinegar, and old bay. Audrey said we were being "wusses" with our napkins and mallets and showed us the real way to handle a crab.

Reading Books

Audrey loves her books. There's no denying that. We normally just read her favorite books and have her point out various pictured items, or we point to them and ask her what they are.

About a week ago, Kelly realized Audrey is starting to memorize some of her favorites, so now we have her "read" to us by pausing and letting Audrey fill in the blanks.

This is another one of those somewhat boring videos, but it seemed like a big development milestone and momentous enough for us to record it. Here is Audrey "reading" Bee and Me.

Ocean City, MD

Maryland is definitely a water state. It must be, with all the blue crabs everywhere. I don't know if the Maryland blue crab is the official state mascot, but if not, it should be. To quote from The Wedding Crashers: "Crab cakes and football, that's what Maryland does!" And even though Maryland sits on the Atlantic ocean, the Chesapeake Bay seems to get all the attention.

We live on St. Mary's Peninsula, which sits between the Potomic River and the Patuxant River and juts out into the Chesapeake Bay. We get our fair share of water, but we had yet to see the Atlantic Ocean. Unfortunately, being on this peninsula means that unless you have access to a boat or an airplane, accessing the Eastern Shore requires driving an hour and twenty minutes back up the peninsula before crossing over the Chesapeake and heading back down to the ocean. That means the 60-ish miles by air takes about 4 hours by car. Determined, we packed up the car on Saturday morning for our first Atlantic adventure.

Our short weekend was filled with a number of firsts for Audrey:

First time dipping her feet in the Atlantic

First time on an ocean boardwalk (complete with her first bruise on her forehead from tripping over her flip-flops)

First ocean sand between her toes

First ocean sand on her head

First Tai Chi session on the beach

First beach towel dress after getting a waist down bath at the showers (that sand gets everywhere)

Not pictured, but nonetheless noteworthy:

• First fish and chips
• First corn dog
• First ice cream with Jimmies (Mike says they are "sprinkles", but will let it slide since we are on the East coast)

We had lots of fun on the Atlantic and we are looking forward to our big Pacific Ocean adventure in a few weeks! Luckily we'll have more than two days to explore.