To the fossils!

The place I work is a German biotech company. They have, due to this German-ness, been showing the World Cup games at all the sites. Last World Cup I was in the Germantown facility and not up in Frederick, as I am now. At that time there was such German zeal that every game was attended in a sense of rah rah camaraderie for our European bosses and co-workers. 

I thought that this Cup would be the same. I am not sure if the difference is the site change or just the difference of the Americans doing so well.

On Thursday when the USA played Germany I was all excited, not only because they are both teams I cheer for but because I wanted to see how the mood at work would be.

It was actually pretty flat. Only 1 or 2 of the Germans even showed up to watch the game. Mostly it was a few Americans and a few Asians. That viewership was not very contentious or roused. The game was useful in that both teams moved on the next level (16) but not that much fun as the USA lost.

A disappointing and relatively blase experience.

My enthusiasm for the World Cup is not dented a bit though. We lost our free Roku viewing and ESPN so now we are watching in Spanish and on Univision.

Plus if you are a podcast person I must recommend 5 live's World Cup Daily podcast.

On Friday we made the long long Drive to Calvert Cliffs for fossil hunting. The kids have been reading fossil books and playing with some cheap trilobites I got them from Amazon. The place I would prefer to take them has a two mile hike to the beach so obviously we didn't try that one. We will wait a few years and then go there.

I have been doing the internet research thing and found this guy and his site. I love this guy! He put up links to tide tables, price lists, videos of the beaches, maps and fossil examples.

We instead went to Bayfront Park.

We had to pay way more than I wanted to but the tiny walk down to the beach and the long sandbar that let the kids wander waaayyy out into the bay made it seem worth it.

There were never more than 10-15 people there and mostly it was a few adults with several kids each. 

Most of us looked for fossils (Miocene cliffs) casually and played in the water and enjoyed the perfect weather.

Kiernan found two and noone got sunburned and everyone had fun.

I think that is a great way to have some science.

In other news look at my beautiful tomato flowers.

There is now one tiny tomato. I am filled with anticipation. I want fried green tomatoes and tomato sandwiches and fresh bruschetta. I want these things very much!

We tried the longer hike on Sugarloaf as well this weekend. It was about a mile and a half. There was a great deal of Megan carrying and once again Kiernan marched his little legs off. 

It went smoothly in part due to the 3 adult to 2 child ratio.

Yay Nana and Daddy!

We found a beautiful fern patch, we saw a fox (that made me nervous and I handed the adults sticks because it seemed a singularly intimidated fox), we had some snacks and we scrambled on the rocks. It was hot!

It was also beautiful.

I was particularly pleased to make that hike with David. He is not Mr. Outdoors for sure but it is so nice to have him with us on the mountain.

Aunt Carolyn came over to play with the kids and catch up before she heads back to OK.

Good luck Aunt Carolyn!