Catching up with our summer travels.  We headed home on  a Saturday from Hilton Head and arrived in the evening. Fortunately we did not have any damage to our house from the strong rain storm the week before that devastated Old Town Ellicott City. I watched a few videos on Utube of the actual flooding from people trapped in the buildings and restaurants during the storm. It was pretty unbelievable to see cars washing down the road in a torrent, including cars with people still inside as spectators video taped from the second floor of one of our favorite restaurants. They were unable to help, but one group formed a human chain and pulled a woman to safety from her car. The aftermath of the storm left the road in shambles, along with most of the store fronts. Cars and trees crashed into the fronts of the shops, especially those with large windows. Our community was quick to lend a hand in the renovations of the town by collecting funds for EC Strong, donating cleaning supplies and volunteering in the clean up. Kids in our neighborhood held lemonade sales to donate money to the cause. Other businesses hired currently out of work waiters/waitresses and bartenders.  They are busy selling tshirts. The whole town is currently closed down and multiple vehicles are still stuck along the river that flows through the south end. 150 cars were washed down the street. Unfortunately, our close neighbors that experienced excessive flooding in this neighborhood  have not had as much attention.

We continue to fight   a high density housing development planned in the undeveloped section of our neighborhood. We are especially concerned that more building will lead to even more flooding. The more they remove trees and pave open fields, the better chance for increased flooding downstream. A small stream runs right through our large neighborhood and apparently the culverts and drainage ditches cannot handle the overflow. There is a section of wetlands through the neighborhood that helps, but often the areas will overflow with excess tree branches and leaves that clog and block the water flow. Allison and I attended another town meeting the following weekend on Saturday afternoon. Looks like our neighborhood plans to hire a group to represent our cause to the county to limit the amount of building in the area.

We also spent that Saturday morning as a family visiting with Tom's intern and her family members. Tom and I previously enjoyed a traditional Pakistani dinner at their historic house. Nashi invited us all over for dinner again, but we were in Hilton Head at the time. So instead she asked us to brunch this past weekend with the kids. Nashi's sisters are all incredibly friendly and made Allison and Scott feel right at home. We enjoyed cooked chickpeas and pita bread for breakfast, along with a form of Pakistani cinnamon rolls, watermelon and yogurt. And we got to eat with our fingers! Tom also made American cinnamon rolls, but I think we all enjoyed the Pakistani version more! Nashi enjoyed sharing recommendations on how Scott and Allison could attempt to secure scholarships or internships from Northrop since she had just gone through the process herself. And the kids finished off our visit with a tour of the house and the big climb up the narrow steps to the roof in the 1800 historic home.

This particular weekend was incredibly hot, so we spent most of our time inside. I did try to get the lawn cut early Sunday morning, and almost collapsed from heat exhaustion. It had been in the low 100s and not much rain lately. When I could get back outside to cut the grass, a huge tstorm popped up and we lost power. Right in the middle of the Olympics. We have really been enjoying catching up with all the US athletes, especially our own Maryland Gold Winners, Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky. The news stated that if Maryland was a country, it would have the most Gold medals in all the world because of those two athletes! They stopped in the middle of the Washington Nationals Baseball game in DC to watch Katie swim as well as a shout out during the Ravens pre Season Football game to Michael Phelps. Both of their events were televised on the jumbo screens at the games. Tom and Scott just happened to be enjoying the Ravens pre Season game on Thursday night at the stadium as one of Tom's co workers gave him tickets. Scott had never been to a professional football game and enjoyed the new experience. And our Ravens beat the Carolina Panthers(although it was mostly the 2nd and 3rd string players on the field). I also dragged Scott along to a baseball game earlier in the day as we joined my mom for Sr Day at the Bowie Baysox minor league baseball game. We attended last year and we really had a great time again with mom playing Bingo, sampling the buffet meal and of course, watching the game from the luxury of the air conditioned skybox. And our team won! Scott was happy to have a free week to heal up from his recent ear infection.

I had to work on Friday since I switched my day off to join Mom on her outing. I was glad to hear that she has been busy attending various outings at her apt complex including weekly lunch outings as well as a special trip to the local firehouse. She continues to attend weekly activities at the Sr Center. And they are busy remodeling all the public places in her building-soon they will have new paint/wallpaper, furniture and paintings. They even paved a portion of the front entrance to add extra tables and seating to enjoy the comings and goings of visitors and residents while getting some fresh air(when it stops being so hot or stormy). We are looking forward to taking Mom down to Virginia beach in the coming week for a mini vacation.

Allison was excited to wrap up the last week of her internship. She brought in flowers and cookies to the Maryland Chemical Company staff as a Thank you for their time and attention. She was asked to complete a presentation on her experience there before finishing her week. She also had to present book reports on two business novels she read over our trip to Hilton Head. On Friday the staff took Allison out to lunch. I think the internship was an incredible learning experience for Allison, although she really did miss returning to summer girl scout camp as a counselor. She celebrated the end of her summer internship with a visit to SkyZone with Tyler. Scott was disappointed that he could not go with them since he still has a cast on his arm. Allison and Tyler went to open gym with lots of jumping on the trampolines. They wanted to stay for Dodge ball, but after 1.5 hrs of jumping they were worn out! Guess that is why it is an Olympic sport. Instead they headed over to Tyler's house to make pizza and play poker with his family before Allison headed home(in another Tstorm). She had thought about attending Otakon-the Anime Convention in town for the last time, but was disappointed that they did not have as many guest speakers that she enjoys. It moves to DC next year for more space. Over 27,000 people attended. It resembles Halloween in Downtown Baltimore as all the participants dress up as their favorite characters with some really elaborate costumes. Maybe next year. We also talked about attending the County Fair, but it was just too hot. Temps hitting 100 degrees-the cows would turn into hamburgers! I think we will spend more time in the air conditioning for now!