The first place we went to that is unique to Dover is the Victor Victrola museum. Victor was the inventor of the phonograph. My Grandpa in Michigan collects radios and phonographs and so this place was always of interest to me. We saw some pretty incredible antiques and learned a lot. I thought I would be the only one in the group of 4 that would be interested (being as I was the only one over the age of 6) but my older 2 children enjoyed learning, and Titus even bobbed up and down when we heard the music playing.
This is the phonograph that we listened to. We learned that the phrase, "Put a Sock in it" came from this machine being too loud. As it didn't have volume control, people would put a sock in it to make a more quiet or muffled sound.
This is one of the first internal phonographs, and it held a compartment for the listener's records.
These dolls were phonographs too, and would play music or recorded sounds.
The kids and I also enjoyed playing in the pool. Here they are just before heading out the door. We are quite the lively group.
In the afternoons we would hang out with our friends. One day I was in the house and I heard Elise say, "Boys, put your shirts over here." The phrase definitely peeked my interest, and I headed outside to see what was going on. The boys had decided to wrestle a little bit (and of course they must be bare chested). Here is the picture of the fearsome set. Who would you wager against?
On Friday, Nate hosted us at his school's cafeteria for lunch. We had a fun time seeing his daily environment...it was a busy and regimented school room, lots of kids to feed! The kids all enjoyed the pizza and blue cake!
Saturday we drove into Washington DC to tour the White House. First we sat on the side of the road to eat some delicious panini's from a bakery/deli in Annapolis that we happened upon a few years ago. It was still just as delicious.
Elise was looking chic, and ready for the day's adventure.
Titus was ready too, but already a little restless from being in the car seat on the ride over....how would he survive the Capitol tour???
Praise the Lord, we stumbled across a yard sale that had a infant cell phone exactly like what I had searched 3 stores for but couldn't find! I was so thankful, it was a high price for a child's toy at a garage sale ($2), but I let that go since it was in DC, I was desperate, the ones I had looked at were just under $20, it it was brand new!
Two good buddies...
The Cherry Blossom Festival had been the week before, so the trees were magnificent.
After a bit of wandering (some intentional, some not...) we found the Capitol. It was like a mirage for the children as it was a very warm day, and they were quite parched.
The highlight of the tour was finding this statue of Sam Houston. The kids were quite proud of it, especially after all of their Texas history lessons they have received from Papa! I must note that it is the only statue of the 100 that had a colored marble base, and burnt orange at that. The rest were either grey or white, true to form Texas, true to form.
We didn't get the whole tour... many times through the tour we were told we could take the elevator instead of the stairs like everyone else took. I had thought that this was out of kindness or sympathy that Shelly and I had to tote the stroller from one floor to the next. However, the one time we took the tour guide's advice to use the elevator, she said she would meet us on the lower level, that we could find the group very simply. When the doors to the elevator opened, our group was no where to be found! I think she told them...hurry and we can escape those crazy women with the young kids and the baby with the noisy cell phone toy!
A shot with Old Glory
Back at the hotel, we kept ourselves occupied by spiking the boys' hair...I think this was day 11 or 12 of being there. It is the time when your entertainment is pretty simple, yet creative!
Josiah looking cool...
Titus gives it a shot, thanks to sister Elise.
We also visited our old stomping grounds and fed the horses that we used to feed and pet every day. I think they remembered Ziah.
What once seemed a plague of dandy lions to our backyard, didn't seem so menacing as I snapped this shot of Josiah contemplating the wish he would make before blowing the seeds across the field.
As a family we got to visit our Pastor from Delaware. We truly appreciate both he and his wife, and had a good afternoon on the back porch eating lunch and relaxing by their little river.
Mike had to have his share in daring events, and this time he was challenged by his wife to remove a dead branch out of our friend's tree.
Here he is trying to reach the branch.....
And here is a view for perspective on how high up he was.
He had a few kids modeling his behavior.
Our trip back home lead us across the Bay Bridge Tunnel, or the 'up-down bridge' as our children called it. This was pretty incredible. The road was designed to cross the bay by bridge at some points and then you go down into a below water tunnel and rise back onto a bridge again (2 times)! It allows safe passage of really huge ships to go over the road.
We stopped on the little tourist spot in the middle to look around. Titus was wanting his dad to share the toy more.
My 'crew'.
Hope you enjoyed this Captain's Log of our journey!
