I celebrated my Birthday weekend with a cold! Not a lot of fun, but I still managed to enjoy my special day with the family. I started the celebration with dinner out on Saturday night in downtown Baltimore. We were headed to the Harbor to drop Scott off on a Boy Scout outing. The boys had the opportunity to sleep over on one of our historical ships, The Constellation. The 100+ year old sailing ship was active in the Navy during the Civil War and into WWI and WWII. The boys slept in hammocks down below. Therefore I passed on the experience, although I have enjoyed spending the night with Scott on various other ships in the harbor. Scott reports the experience  felt like a sleepover  in a museum.  But he says his favorite overnight was sleeping on the huge WW transport ship, The Brown also in the Harbor. I enjoyed that outing as well, especially since I had my own cabin that was heated! And the ship really was huge-lots to see.

After dropping Scott off Saturday evening, Tom and I headed to Morton's Steak House for dinner. We had a gift card to use, so we took advantage of the opportunity. I especially loved my Birthday photo and my chocolate lava cake with vanilla ice cream smoking with dry ice. And dinner was phenomenal too! I was just glad I could taste it through my cold. My Birthday celebration continued on Sunday, my actual Birthday. We had an early pick up time for Scott Sunday morning. After loading him and his gear into the car, we stopped into a new, local restaurant for brunch. I found the Iron Rooster online in a newly developed portion of the city along the harbor. The area continues to grow and develop, especially around the upcoming new headquarters for Under Armour. We were very impressed with the food at the small restaurant. They are known for breakfast all day and chicken and waffles. Scott tried the burger on waffles, Tom opted for the breakfast burrito and I stuck with Eggs Benedict on biscuits with chicken tenders. I must say it was quite tasty. We then headed over to the movie theater to catch Dr Strange. I was not really excited about seeing this super hero film, but it turns out I really liked it. And it was an excuse to bring home a big bucket of popcorn! We then stopped into Costco to pick up a big chocolate birthday cake, grabbed some chinese food and my mom and enjoyed dinner at our house with cake and presents afterwards along with Sunday night football. Overall a very enjoyable Birthday! And I am just glad I could still walk last week after the 6 mile hike across the Bay Bridge the weekend before.

Scott had a little break from school work after finishing up his first semester. He had two days off at the end of the term, however he had to work on Monday. And Tuesday was election day. What an interesting day that turned out to be. I was up late that night watching the election results, and so were most of our neighbors and coworkers. Even the students. It was certainly interesting and I know we were all very surprised to see Trump take the presidency(and all very tired the next day). Tom and I had voted early with no real problem. Allison put in an absentee ballot. I tried to take my mom out to early voting on the last day and there was a 1.5 hr wait. Forget it. I decided to try and take her to vote on election day and we were able to walk right in-no waiting. I think she enjoyed the experience and the quick outing with me on a Tuesday night. Although she already had a busy day  as I sent her off to Bob Evans for a luncheon with the Sr Center. Even mom was surprised to hear that Trump won. Who knew.

Scott was also busy putting on a Video Game Club fundraiser on Friday night before heading to work. He decided to use the hours towards his volunteer time for the National Honor Society. He has to complete 24 hrs of volunteer work this year to stay in the program, along with keeping up his GPA. So far his two favorite classes are his Engineering programs. He is busy learning about circuit boards and working on the Robotics program. And they are making sandwich cutters in the 3D printers. Thank goodness for engineers!

Allison has transitioned from her Field Hockey program to Ultimate Frisbee. She finished off her Field Hockey season with a small get together at a local bar after spending the day on an outing to Yorktown Virginia. Her roommate was on a historic Field Trip and invited Allison along to a visit to the new pre Revolutionary War museum. We have visited the area before since it is near Jamestown, Williamsburg and Busch Gardens. The girls report the museum is still in development, but they enjoyed their beautiful day out on the James River, having lunch at a local Tavern. The girls then spent the rest of their weekend at Towson University playing Ultimate Frisbee games. They slept over at one of the team players houses and went out to dinner. We opted to skip the visit to the Frisbee games even though Allison was in town. It was a bit too chilly to sit out and watch frisbee, especially with colds. Sounds like the team had lots of support however from other dedicated parents who brought lots of food for the girls.