For weeks 7 and 8 of the shutdown, I took the girls down to Maryland to stay with Katy. This gave Heather a break to focus on her Mom and work and then the cousins could remote learn and play together. Numbers-wise, MD was not as hot as MA. While we were gone, MA cases went up to 75,000 (+34,000), Middlesex county cases rose to 17,300 (+7,300) and Lexington went to 257 (+49).
Tessie finally knocked off the last of her lagging states to visit: New Jersey
and Delaware and now she is up to 47 with everyone else. Note the completely empty Delaware House rest stop.
At Boxwood Farm there were plenty of chores to do
Brad appropriated some 12 ft tongue-and-groove fir planks to make a picnic table
All the kids helped apply the polyurethane
Erin learned how to clean the dinner dishes Aunt Katy style
Caroline re-remembered too
Lyla helped Tessie with her piano lessons
Caroline's note
and response
You know more pies, rite?
We took a long day trip to knock off the last NPS site in the Mid-Atlantic, Assateague Island National Seashore. The famous ponies of Chincoteague live on Assateague.
While the NPS site was closed, the adjacent National Wildlife Refuge was open for picnicking
There are 2 horse herds on Assateague. A small but natural group roams anywhere on Assateague and is difficult to find, while a larger group managed by the Chincoteague Fire Dept is hemmed into a small marshy corner of the island. These are the ones that famously swim across in what I now view skeptically as a tourist trap to benefit businesses on Chincoteague.
Look at that wet boggy habitat
We found one of Maryland's 19 species of dung beetles on the path. He is on the left pushing his round poo ball with his back legs.
Erin and Charlie couldn't resist the surf
Another non-essential stop was drive-thru ice cream in Delaware
Erin and Charlie were Katy's best farm hands and here they are filling the nectar feeders for Katy's 5 bee hives
Tessie's fulfilled her horse fantasies by visiting the Balmer's estate, Roedown
At Chesapeake Beach we searched for shark teeth and the older girls swam
and Tessie and Dave hiked along the coast
Tessie wore rain boots and sloshed through the puddles, staying free of ticks. I stepped into the grass to avoid the puddles and picked up dozens of tick nymphs. Eek!
I got the whole-head treatment from Katy, first the hair and then the teeth
Early in the day the kids balanced schoolwork and outside play, but by afternoons the screens took over, especially Minecraft
After 2 weeks in MD, we drove home to MA, stopping once at the Great Egg NSRR in NJ
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