Baltimore Aquarium

I had the pleasure of taking a trip to the Baltimore aquarium (known as the National Aquarium) with the school that is being hosted by the Embassy this year. I've previously given them a presentation and had other activities with them. Baltimore is about 45 minutes away and the aquarium is huge and quite well regarded. Of special note, it has an Australian exhibit called Wild Extremes. It's a permanent display and the Embassy takes the kids here to see a small taste of Australia. The website says...

This exhibit depicts a typical northern Australia river gorge. This slice of Australia in Baltimore offers visitors a truly immersive experience: as you walk through the bottom of the gorge, get close to 1,800 individual native animals representing 120 species, including freshwater crocodiles, turtles, fishes, snakes, lizards, free-flying birds, and flying foxes. Many of these unique and unusual animals are found only in Australia.

I haven't seen a snake since I left home so I wasn't keen to see them again. The kids were amazed and loved the crocodiles and turtles. There is a kookaburra somewhere in there but we didn't get to see it unfortunately. I checked out the jellyfish display and oh my god, how beautiful that was. There were so many different types of jellyfish and they are very captivating to look at.

 

And another great part of the trip was that we travelled on a YELLOW school bus. American's don't understand our fascination with YELLOW school buses - we don't have anything like it in Australia so this is an icon for us. I thought the kids would break out into singing the 100 green bottles, hanging on the wall but no, these kids are much younger than me and instead, they were singing the latest pop music. I was quite shocked really. They just sang bits and pieces and all joined in. They get on quite well. I noticed when I got off the bus though that my hips were a bit stiff - the seats were a bit smaller than normal but I didn't appreciate that until the end. Over all, a great day out and I was thrilled to be the ridgey-didge Aussie for the kids on their day out.

Another highlight this week was that I made my very first pavlova !! One of the ladies at work had a 60th dinner party at home and it was a potluck = bring a plate. Many of the ladies were Phillipino, Malaysian, Singaporean so the food was just A-mazing. There were some very authentic dishes and it was such lovely food. There were empanadas, lamb curry, special pasta and other fried delights. So my pavlova was a huge hit at the end and I was very pleased with it. I loaded it with heaps of berries and mango and lashings of cream so who wouldn't like it. 

I thought these work ladies were quiet, reserved and mild but holy dooley, a glass of wine unleashed the real women and there were some great laughs and stories. We enjoyed the night and these ladies have become wonderful friends to me. They have worked at the Embassy for many many years and it was interesting to hear the tales of early days. 

 

We have both continued our healthy eating and the results are showing. We've both been searching the cupboards for clothes that fit again and it feels nice to just feel better about ourselves. We are both running strong and I am training hard for this relay race end April. I've probably talked about it before but it's a 200mile (316km) race from Gettsburgy to DC over about 36 hours. Most teams are 12 man but we couldn't get one organised so I opted for a 6 man team which means 6 legs each which totals about 50km each. Or strategy is to run single legs but a double in the night so that will make some hard distances to back up. Our team van will leapfrog as we run along and we will be running every 6 hours or so which will make it hard work to back up so soon after the previous run. It will be a hard struggle for me but I love a challenge and those who know me well, know that I like endurance and tough challenges. There are 4 men and 2 women on the team and we are all Aussies - at this stage our Team name is Aussie Drop Bears and we are hoping to get a team singlet made. I'm really looking forward to it and ramping up the training each week by running solid miles and sometimes twice a day and many consecutive days.

Funny story, we convinced our gym PT lady to watch The Dressmaker. We explained to her what a 'dunny' was and I'd made her lamingtons recently so was happy to recognise some Aussie lingo. She enjoyed the movie but said she didn't want to visit a town like that !

This week I bought tickets to see Aretha Franklin in July and Hall and Oates in June (who have Tears for Fears supporting them). I am so excited. Aretha Franklin is retiring after this tour and she's about 75. And I love Hall and Oates - seeing high caliber musicians is one of the big benefits of living in the US. The choice is huge and the venues are fantastic.

Baseball season has started to I'm very excited to start going to games again. I am quite sad though to not have my dear friend Aussie Bob with me as he's returned home. I had the best times with him and it won't be the same without him to enjoy a beer with and chat game stuff. He got me going to the baseball last year and I am forever thankful for the games we went to and the fun we had. I will miss not having someone to dance with as we try to get our faces on the big screen.

Well, not much else to report. We go to Texas in 2 weeks so the next post will likely be from there.