Pineland Farm and Andy's Birthday Celebration

Today Andy's Sister invited us to this local farm where they have a story, let the kids feed the cows, milk a cow, collect eggs, and pet some animals.  Anne got freaked out by the cow slobber early on, so she was afraid of everything and was reluctant to try anything after feeding.  But, she loved the playground area and her Cousin loved tickling the cow, and seeing all the animals!

For dinner, we celebrated Andy's belated birthday with some of his favorites.  Ribs and Ice cream cake from Toots.  Toots is a family favorite in our house.  The ice cream and everything else (even the "oreo" cookies) is homemade.  The cows are right there and they sell the ice-cream from an old train caboose.  (Here a blog about them http://weallscreamforicecream.wordpress.com/2009/09/06/toots-north-yarmouth-me/)

Storyland

Today we visited Storyland, in North Conway, New Hampshire.  It was awesome and I was really impressed.  We went with Andy's parents, his sister, and our niece.  We stopped for lunch before, which worked out nice because there weren't good options for kids in the park (but they allowed you to bring in your own food).  Anne loved everything.  There is pretty much every nursery rhyme to play in.  And most animal stories are shown with the animals.  The minimum height for a lot of the rides is 36 inches, and Anne is 36 1/4 inches… when she looks up.  They measured her on the flying fish ride and she had to look up to be the proper height.  Anne was so excited to go from ride to ride.  We've done Disney and Six Flags and there were way more rides for her age group than both those combined.  I was a little worried the rides would would worn down or more carnival like, but they weren't.  Like I said, very impressed.  It is a great park for the 2.5-5yr group.

Also, if you are thinking about traveling this way there is a cool looking adventure hotel that looks neat (http://www.adventuresuites.com/index.php).

ME

We are very fortunate that both of our families live in amazing places.  This is our view of The Lake in Maine from outside our bedroom window.  Beautiful. Anne has been enjoying the water and although it is a little chilly here compared to Florida, the water feels great.

Today we also stopped in at the DeLorme Map Store to prepare for our trip.  Anne really enjoyed the big globe.

Drive to Maine

We left the house at 8:15am and went to get the cars weighed (a requirement for the military move).  That took about 30 minutes!  Mostly because with our little cars the operator can't see us in the camera so we have to get out of the car and tell them we want to get weighed.

Notice how you can't see Andy's car around the trailer.

This time we drove through Pennsylvania to avoid New York City. It was beautiful, very scenic and it cost way less in tolls.  Normally we pay around $50 per car but it was only around $10 going this way. We didn't hit much traffic but if you did it would be terrible because all the roads are 2 lanes.  The only disappointment was that we couldn't stop at the local brewery where we like to have dinner in Connecticut. It is called SBC brewery and they have a magician on Sundays (when we typically travel), great beer and food, and good kid options.  Oh well.  The trip through PA was still worth it to me, and I would recommend it if you don't need to see the NYC skyline.

The radios are very nice to have.  If one of us needs to stop for gas or pit stops we can let the other person know. Also, if something quick is about to happen we can alert the other person (cars in blind spots, potholes, etc). 

After we stopped for gas & diesel in Massachusetts we got back on the road and the trailer's left tire blew out. Andy was quick to pull over before the tire was about to come off.  It was scary how quick it all happened and how there was no warning.  So, at 9pm on the side of I-495, Andy changed the tire.  We were lucky it was the trailer tire and not any of the others because the stabilizer jacks on the trailer made it quick to change--Andy changed it in record time… 10 minutes and we were back on the road.

Our location during the tire change.

We got in at around 11pm.

Tracey's average mph: 45.6 (normally around 42)
Andy's average: 34 (normally 48)
Trip miles: **
Total miles: **

**will update

Last time in our Maryland House

Originally we were just going to stop in for the night and then continue on our drive to Maine, the next morning.  On the drive to Maryland, we decided to just stay a full day so we wouldn't be stressed to get everything done.  It took us all day to pack our stuff and clean the house.  Andy had the idea to work on packing the cars first and cleaning the house second, but for some reason, I kept sweeping the floors.  I must have swept them 5 times. 
We had to get my car weighed empty, so we decided to go up to our favorite Greek Restaurant, Hella's in Gambrills.  The restaurant was near the New Transit truck stop where we weighed the car and we celebrated Andy's birthday with ice cream for dessert.  Anne was also very excited to see our neighbors and say goodbye to them all.

Too busy for pictures :(

Drive from FL to MD

This drive was pretty uneventful.  We did stop at South of the Border, in South Carolina, to play on the playground for a bit.

Buzzin' and Cousins'

Last night we came back from "Pop's House" and were walking the beach and felt itchy all over.  I looked down and thought I saw a flea on me.  Andy thought the same thing.  We had been meaning to get our dog, Lady, a hair cut while the movers were packing, but we canceled our scheduled appointment when the movers finished early and we decided to go to Harper's Ferry.  So, thinking we were covered with fleas, we quickly ended our walk on the beach to race home to take showers and check the dogs for fleas.  On the way we made a grooming appointment for Lady.  Sure enough when we got home, no fleas…
How can you tell you are no longer a Floridian?   When you confuse no-see-ums for fleas.

Lady (before)

That night, Anne got to play with her Cousins on the beach and Pops surprised the kids with s'mores on the beach at a place that has gas fires outside on the walk from the house to the beach.  It was great and it was Anne's first s'more of the camping trips to come.  All the kids had a blast playing on the beach and eating the s'mores on the way back.  Anne's cousin Michael was even nice enough to share his ice cream cone with her while we waited for the s'mores pack.