On the way out the wrong direction…

Driving to Maryland threw us for a loop. We were all pretty confused about which state we were in, and this leg of the trip was like a scene from one of the vacation movies.

First of all we were up in the middle of the night looking for a mouse. Grandma heard it first, reached over to feel Doodle and only got her feet. Turns out Doodle was falling off the bed in s l o w motion, squeaking like a mouse as she went. No tears or wails, just squeaking with her head on the ground, feet still on the bed.

In the car, Doodle repeatedly sang ‘Here Comes Peter Cottontail’ until Grandma and I were sure it was March instead of October. In between renditions, she’d start chanting, “We need a break! We need a break!” or some such plea she’d previously heard emanating from the front seat.

Also, Doodle has entered the potty mouth stage 2 years early. Little Man was finally beginning to leave it, but now they just egg each other on. When I was on the phone with Tomcat, Doodle started in with something inappropriate and when Grandma turned around she looked up at her indignantly and said, “Just ignore me, Grandma.” Grandma has been getting her due, I have to say. Usually, I'm the one hearing my own voice coming out of Doodle's mouth. But lately, Doodle has been calling Grandma, "You little twerp" or "You're such a little turkey". Guess where she hears that occasionally?

I’d like to note that Little Man hasn’t come up for air in nearly 3 days. He has so many questions and even more lessons to give. Finally, I asked him to pppplease figure out something to do back there because I had to focus on the road! He ended up rigging some sort of fishing pole out of pencils, some string and his Pirate’s hook, which he kept flinging around the car to “catch” things. Plunk. Smack. Plunk. Smack.

The point here is, on the way to Maryland, none of us had a clue we actually went through Delaware, save the precarious stop on the toll road for a picture at the Welcome sign. We really needed to go back. So we did.

Grandma had the brilliant idea of going through Annapolis and across the Chesapeake Bay instead of backtracking. I'm so happy for that recommendation. It was tough to just do a drive-by through such an historic and endearing place. We needed at least as much time in Annapolis as we had in Baltimore, but we were already going in the opposite direction of Pennsylvania, where we were planning to lay our heads for the night so we marched on!

Then we almost forgot our Maryland dirt! Just before crossing the Chesapeake Bay (loaded with those tasty blue crabs) we found an exit and ended up at at Sandy Point State Park. What a nugget of a place looking out over the water – the sand is precisely the color of Sugar Babies. Pretty enough to eat.