The weather was pretty nice; it wasn’t too hot or cold but was kind of windy. We walked down the path by the canal and by several locks. Eventually we veered off the path and down into the rocks by the river. The kids (we had Abby that day so there were three kids) had a lot of fun climbing and scrambling on the boulders.

Eventually we found Billy Goat Trail. It is almost 5 miles long, and can be quite tricky in places. Of course Mason loved it, but the girls did pretty good as well. Whitney had a pretty bad fall when she was heading down a slippery slope of rock, tripped and almost went facefirst into a rock but somehow she stopped herself.

We ate a little lunch while taking a break about halfway through the trail and made it back to the car, which was about 1 miles too far away, cause they kids were really dragging. Between the Billy Goat Trail and the other trails we went on it was a lot of walking even for me. Pictures follow the break.

Whitney and Heidi’s was more traditional, with a beautiful blue lake and a cute dog and lots of pretty icicles. It also had a very nice wreath over the front door.

We started out on the first day, Sunday, in Baltimore and started heading south. Our first stop was in Orlando, but we wouldn’t be there until Wednesday morning. So we spend the first two and a half days at sea. The water was pretty choppy at first, but it didn’t make either of us sick. We had a very good time all the way down. Our boat was the Carnival Pride, which is a very nice boat and we had a balcony, which we slept out on one night. The food was really good, and we each bought an all you can drink pop card. I figured out how many pops we needed to drink each day in order to break even so I drank at least that many each day.

We got to the beach in Orlando, which is very nice but would be a lot better if there were oil rigs on the horizon, adding to our domestic supply of oil. But the world is not a perfect place, so we just swam in the ocean and walked up and down the beach.

Then we went back to sea before landing at Nassau, in the Bahamas. The last time we were there we just got off the ship and started walking around town. That was pretty fun, but this time we took a taxi over to Atlantis and staked out a place on the beach. The waves were huge, as you can see in the video, and the water was very warm. The temperature was warm also. After a while, we just started walking down the beach toward one end that looked at little more private. We got to a little outcropping of rock that sheltered the water and calmed the waves. Although we didn’t bring our snorkeling gear, we should have because there were tons of fish in that area. A herd of yellow and black fish stalked us for a while and it was pretty neat.

We followed that up with an exciting evening aboard the boat. It was probably more exciting for the heavy drinkers, who seemed to be losing their heads. At one point a lady asked me if the drummer in the band that was playing was my son. The drummer was probably 35. And black.

We then went on to Freeport, took another taxi to another beach and hung out there most of that day before getting back on board the boat to start the long trip home.

Cruises are a lot of fun, and we look forward to another trip. As you can see from the pictures, the ocean and sky are pretty and the beaches are great. We also made sure to take pictures of all the towel animals for Whitney, who was very interested in that.

They also went on a couple roller coaster things, which were only about thirty yards in circumference, but lasted more than five minutes each. In fact, one seemed to go five minutes forward, then reversed direction. They went so long it seemed like Mason was going to puke but he didn’t. Then we were going to go to Cici’s to eat pizza but Mason decided he wanted a Subway sandwich instead, and ate an entire footlong chicken sandwich.

For his birthday, he got Deer Drive for the Wii, Bakugan Brawlers (with an included Bakugan) for the DS from Grandma Linda and Grandpa Herb, a skateboard and pads, clothes and money which was used to purchase even more Bakugans from Grandma Nancy and several other items from even more family and friends.

The kids enjoyed the parade, and ended up with quite a bit of candy.

Sunday night a fellow camper gave a presentation on astronomy, and brought along a powerful telescope. We all got to see the moons of Jupiter and a galaxy that is the farthest object visible. Mason was hoping it was the Star Wars galaxy.

We also went out along the river bank and on the way back found a copperhead snake that had recently been run over. So, we did what Columbus would have done and ate it. Seriously, we ate roadkill. At least me and Mason did (and Whitney did try a tiny bite). We skinned it, fried it and ate it. On one of our walks we found a huge vine that I converted into a swing and watched Mason climb up about 20 feet without even thinking twice about it.

We also had fun kicking rocks down the road and catching frogs.

Then Mason said, “No you’re not. Your like 35.”