Hungry Like the Wolf: Salisbury Zoo

Our one adventure away from the water this past week at the Eastern Shore was to check out the relatively close by Salisbury Zoo.  Grandpa B had heard that there was a super cool playground there, "Ben's Red Swings," so we decided to check that out first.  Just our luck -- it was designed as a giant "knight and princess castle" -- something for each of us!  We spent time scrambling across alligator balance beams and learning how to swing it on the monkey bars like pros.  Once we had had our playground fix, we walked right in to the adjacent Salisbury Zoo, which is free.

Have you ever seen "We Bought a Zoo?"  It's kind of like that, except just not at a person's house.  Apparently the zoo was founded in the 1950s when someone decided to put animals on "permanent display in the city park."  But it actually feels kind of like someone just put animals in their backyard because all of the exhibits allow you to get pretty close up to the animals.  We saw bison, flamingoes, iguanas, Titi monkeys, sloths, deer, an Andean bear, and many oversized rodents (that were actually on exhibit at the zoo, not like the one's in our alley at home).  AND we heard (and then saw) red wolves howling for their lunch -- it was pretty much one of the coolest things ever.

We eventually started howling for our lunch, too -- and got "Old MacDonalds" as a treat.  And ice cream cones bigger than our heads as an extra treat there as well.  If you are ever vacationing at the Eastern Shore, the Salisbury Zoo is about 30 miles from Ocean City and we'd say worth the trip if you are in need of a day off of the beach.  Downtown Salisbury has some yummy looking restaurants, too (besides "Old MacDonalds" that is) -- we didn't get a chance to check it out, but the Evolution Craft Brewing Co. & Public House looks like a good spot to dine.

"i hear monsters coming" (aka red wolves)

pretending to be a sloth.

"it looks real!"

Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay: Princess Anne, MD

It appears that for the month of August, Cam, mom and I are basically like a wild pack of family dogs roving about the east coast.  We have been spending an unexpectedly large amount of time schlepping about while daddy holds down the fort at home.  But we'd had last week's trip to Princess Anne with our Grammie and Grandpa B planned for a while and we couldn't wait -- it didn't disappoint.  Grammie and Grandpa rented a house right on the Wicomico River and we spent the whole week crabbing, fishing, kayaking, binocularing, learning how to swim, glamping, painting oyster shells, fighting a losing battle against the local mosquitoes, staying up late, and waking mom up early.  I think everyone had a blast even though Cam and I were in particularly disobedient moods all week -- hey, it's vacaye.  We'll share some of our adventures in more detail this week, but for now, here's pics of the highlights.

checking out the river upon arrival with Gammie B.

toasting marshmallows and dodging mozzies.

in the pot off our dock.

dinner!  we collected our catch in our super official crab bin.

little hands could not wait.

early a.m. fishing with Grandpa.

we caught one! 

Cam caught one, too! 

the deck was a perfect spot to paint oyster shells from our beach.

lots and lots of shells.

drawing the river on the only rainy day we had.

the sunsets were ridiculous every night.

every night.