OK, back by popular demand (Or at least because I enjoy writing about it) the last installment of our family vacation from this year. 

First did I mention? It was hot.  Ridiculously hot.  Fry an egg on the sidewalk hot.  Move really slowly lest one melt kind of hot.



And this trip also marks the first time out for our GPS.  Most of the time it was helpful even if we set "Sue" (or whatever form of vanilla Anglo name was American English choice) into occasional fits of "recalculating" when we took off in a direction she hadn't specified.  Like I said most of the time helpful, but I was a little concerned when I noticed the altitude at which "Sue" thought we were traveling:



Really?  78 feet below sea level?  Apparently our minivan can do a James Bond-esque metamorphosis into a sub.

We also took care of a couple of other prerequisite summer vacation activities while we were still in Virginia.



Afternoon at a beach and miniature golf.  DearSon was this excited every time he got the ball in the hole.

We also spent an afternoon at the  Virginia Air and Space museum, partly because it was way too hot to be doing any significant activities outside.  The museum was nearly empty..kind of weird having a whole museum nearly to ourselves. 


(See. No one else around......)



The small print says "Mars Base Beta. 147 days without an Accident."    Well, DD#1 and I couldn't let that go by without comment.



That my friends is an piece of Mars.  An actual piece of flippin' Mars.   Are you impressed?  I was.  It landed here as an asteroid millions of years ago when something large (the display board under the exhibit was a little vague here) ran into Mars and knocked a biggish chunk off and sent it hurling to Earth.  So here sits -- A piece of Mars in an exhibit, under glass in Virginia.  That's just cool. 



And how often does one get to hug a gas giant?  (No comments from the peanut gallery, please.)

So the last leg of our journey took us to Baltimore, where, not surprisingly, it was still stupid hot.   So our activities there were largely inside ones. 

Baltimore has a very cool science center  with new exhibits about dinosaurs (Who doesn't love a good dinosaur exhibit?) and earth science (Who doesn't love a good earth science exhibit? No that was not a rhetorical question.)


Apparently that behemoth was wandering about Maryland millions of years ago.



The interactive tilt table showing a multitude of maps got the award for most creative use of technology.



And yes we all had to try out the "bed of nails".  (Sing it with me now ..."They're creepy and they're kooky.  Mysterious and spooky.")

The National Aquarium also got two thumbs up.  (Hey, DearSister and DearBrother, that's the owner of the tooth mom had.     (Megalodon   -- basically an enormous shark.)



And my dear DD#2, why are you looking so excited??







Yup, we stopped at the location of her very favorite TV show, Ace of Cakes .  (No, we didn't see anyone but it looks just like it does on TV.  <Obvious statement of the day>

The Charm City Cakes neighborhood is very bohemian chic being a college neighborhood for Johns Hopkins.  We ate at my favorite restaurant of the trip: Paper Moon Diner



Not a restaurant that could be easily missed.

The decor was

eclectic, to say the least.

The wall of tiny plasic babies was....

unique.

But my favorite had to be...

 
the collection of Star Trek pez.   Awesome.  Oh, and the food and service were excellent too.  (Click on the website if you have a chance -- also fun and clever.)

And that my friends and family, wraps the family vacation.  There has been much knitting, spinning and weaving but that is for another day.