Tuesday, August 08, 2006

[Insert Fish Joke]

The weekend was fabu - no other word for it. Hubster and I trotted over to CharlesPierce and his wife's house after rush hour died down, and we met up with Mair and J Morgan, Redhurt and his wife, and Jackscolon. This makes it sound like a mini bloggers' convention, but really, it was just old college buddies hanging out. We stayed up too late talking every night, toured this 19th century estate and enjoyed some made-on-the-spot ice cream that tasted faintly of refreshing lemon and no preservatives - so tasty, though speedily soupy. We floated in their community pool and cracked jokes. To attempt to recreate it would be to spoil it with lameness - a preservative as unwelcome in nostalgia as in ice cream. We thoroughly enjoyed one another. But then we had to leave.

I hate that part.

After dropping the Redhurts off at the airport, the CharlesPierces used some four free passes to get us in to the National Aquarium in Baltimore (a $100 value total - sweet!). This marks only the second time I can remember going to an aquarium and, let me just say, they kick zoo derriere. Almost everything shows signs of life and they have SHARKS, people. Also frogs. Ooo, and real, growing coral. And dolphins who can jump 15 feet out of the water to hit a target like it AIN'T NO THANG. Enough babbling about my wonderful times, here are the pictures to prove it.


Sky Meadows is lovely. I want one, but with plumbing. Definitely.


Sundappled butterflies and flowers at Sky Meadows Estate.


The esteemed (and fabulously follicled) wife of CharlesPierce gets up close and personal with a bird in the open Australia Exhibit. (Okay, can I just say how much I want her hair? Um, I want her hair. That was much less climactic than I wanted it to be. )


To wet your appetite for the bizarre and wonderful, behold this fish whose forehead grows like the mighty oak for its entire life. (The fact that only MST3K fans are with me now is, frankly, a little scary - no offense, guys.) We cracked the usual jokes about wisdom and crankiness and age, but then we saw the only other fish of that species cowering behind his elder in the dark recesses of the aquarium's corner and we realized this is serious business. Do NOT mess with
SeƱor Cerebro who instructs you to go my flickr photostream for the rest of the aquarium pics.

3 comments:

RJ said...

Do you have the one of all of us taken at the Sky Meadows? I need it for Sorbification.

Justin said...

I don't need it for anything, but I just want it.

Anonymous said...

E, it's Charles Peirce's wife. I've never left a comment on a blog before, so be honored that your blog has moved me to make my first comment. :) Your pictures are absolutely fabulous. I mean, I know you are in graphic design and all, but I throughly enjoyed looking at them. You have such talent. I also really enjoyed reading about your travels. Much more interesting than the Connecticut primaries posts going on on Charles's blog...but don't tell him I said that! Just kidding. So anyway, thanks for being a drama queen. It's endearing and entertaining.