A little paradise

Wednesday morning we first decided to go all the way down to a place called Onancock, a 3-4 hours drive further south. However, not being able to get hold of anyone of the very few B & B's down there, we hesitated and decided to go to a city called Cambridge instead. This was right on the Chesapeake Bay as well. First stop however, was going out to Tilghman Island (half island), a rather deserted area, with a nice little community at the end. Beautiful scenary.

Returning back - and going for Cambridge - we drove to Easton - looking out for a playground. This we did not find, instead we found a very nice toy shop, where Sebastian got very occupied by a Brio train landscape. We tend to use toy shops as playgrounds when thats available. Having seen a few American toy shops so far, this one was definately one of the finest, with some of the toys even made of wood - and not only plactic as in "Toys R Us"! Arriving in Cambridge we were met by a huge playground at the visitor center, where Sebastian turned into a pirate, sailing, yelling and running for a little hour. We then went for lunch but was VERY dissapointed to find the city of Cambridge very run down, with hardly any life and only one slightly decent lunch pizza place. Eating one of their pizzas, which consisted of nothing but fat, fat, fat cheese melted down on chuncks of bacon and a tiny piece of tomato, we found ourselves a bit grounded in this place. It felt like a big, boring hole - and we qucikly decided to move on. Out of Cambridge. 

Not knowing much of the area, we drove to a place called Oxford (!). Yet another town off the bay, but quite different from Cambridge. Not much life, but neat and with some very nice houses and a little marina. Right next to the little harbour we found the Oxford Inn, where we stayed for the night. Very friendly people and a nice room - and on the ground floor they were even running a cosy little restaurant, where we had a nice dinner. 

This morning we slept in until 9! We packed up and drove off - on the road again! Visiting the US we decided that we had to go to one of those big outlets, we had heard so much about. Just outside Queenstown we drove into 'Prime Outlet', where we sure found shop after shop after shop after shop .Great !.. Starting off with a cup of coffee and a chocolate chip cookie we went shopping - big time! After 6 or 7 stores we were ready for the grand finale: the toy shop. Unfortunately it turned out to be a plactic one, and we ended up buying one little car for Sebastian (from the movie Cars). His choice would have been a sword from Star Wars, with which he 'shot' his way through the whole store. Being a mother-who-will-not-allow-any-guns this is NOT sweet music to my ears. Maybe I ought to listen to Mr. Wise Tue, who claims that the more I ban guns the more Sebastian will want it. Hmmmmmmm - he might be right. Sebastian got a torch yesterday, and even this little device to produce light has been reduced to a killing gun. Boys!

Did we forget to mention that we also had to buy another suitcase! Having been in numerous GAP kids stores, we have runned out of suitcase room already a week ago. With our new red purchase we hope to have enough space for the rest of the trip. Keep dreaming ...

We called up a B& B that we had found on the internet, just outside of Annapolis. They had a room vacant and we drove straight to their place, which turned out to be a little paradise. We got the 'king sized room', which is very nicely decorated. The house faces a little lake, where their dog 'Boing' took us for a little stroll. Sebastian laughed so sweet and hard when Boing went into the water and came back up, shaking itself dry. 

This Evening we are going into Annapolis center for dinner and a short walk. When Sebastian wakes up from his nap...