Vacation 4

We woke up early on Wednesday morning excited about our trip to the Aquarium .... to find 1" of ice had coated EVERYTHING and that there was no power. And when we woke Cherub 5 to get ready, she had a 102 temp and begged to stay in bed for the day. She decided to stay home with Aunt Chris and Uncle so she could sleep --- they played baord games and she rested on the couch. (At this point it was clear that her head was very congested -- we called a doctor who called in some antibiotics for her.) After picking them up and giving her a dose, she still wanted to stay "home" .... so we left her there as she wanted. With heavy hearts we headed out .... we braved the drive into Baltimore Harbor after Cousin M called to say that the BeltWay and I-83 were clear and dry ....

On Wednesday we were treated to passes to the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland. And these teeth are from the largest breed of shark ever recorded -- and they used to live at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay (and I cannot recall it's name - sorry).

Our cousin M is a Marine Biologist at the National Aquarium, and was very sweet to get us passes to visit. (Thank you M !!) We stopped here to watch the divers feed the rays and the giant sea turtle ... and the Zebra Shark (which is spotted instead of striped) had left this egg sack. Without a male, it is not fertilized--- but the egg sack was so interesting. And thanks to having a Marine Biologist giving us a grand tour, the children were allowed to ask questions and examine it very closely. It was really interesting !!

This photo is from the dolphin show which was adorable. Afterwards we were able to see Foster (the new baby dolphin born late last summer) in person - he was SOOOO cute !!
This photo turned out so neat -- it was one of the many frogs from the Frog CHORUS OF COLORS exhibit. This was a fascinating area with frogs of every size, texture, and color imaginable.

This is a photo of the diver feeding the giant sea turtle. It was rescued from a Northern New England beach with a horrible infection of the front flipper. After the Aquarium crew rescued it, they treated her in hopes of saving the flipper ... it was unsuccessful. So after teh amputation her heath was still not "perfect" so the Aquarium decided to keep her as an exhibit in an effort of save her life .. it was doubtful she would make it again in the wild. And she was just amazing to watch.

Cousin M spent most of the morning with us, answering millions of questions and sharing her deep love of all creatures aquatic. THANK YOU COUSIN M !!!

After a few purchases (for Cherub 5) from the gift shop we headed back to the Bollinger's to find that they still had no power (from the Icestorm on Tuesday night) . Around 3pm poor Cherub 5 was still running 102-103 fevers .... and was still miserable. We packed up our things and loaded the van, and then went to dinner with Aunt Chris and Uncle Ed. After dinner, Cherub 5 was beginning to feel a bit better -- and we headed for Hanover, PA to my sisters for the night. We left the ice behind and found our first 1" of snow in Hanover ..... the children said it was YUMMY !!