ARTS: Reading At the Waters Edge by Sara Gruen Reading Chinese Rich Girlfriend  Reading Fiercombe Manor Seeing Chihuly in the garden at the Chrysler Museum Enjoying this piece on Fresh Air on "life, sex, and elevators in space" FOOD: Family ice cream date at Doumar's Harvesting the first produce of the year from our garden (some early green beans and strawberries) PLACES: East...

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We visited the Wright Brothers National Memorial on our vacation a few weeks ago -- nobody in our group had ever been, and I had just days before listened to David McCullough talk about his new Wright Brothers book on NPR, so I was really excited to go. Most people associate the Wrights with Dayton, Ohio, were they were born and began their...

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Do you know the concept of a not-bummer-summer list? It's from the Judy Moody movie that came out a couple of years ago, a list of things to do to make an ordinary summer super special. Since we're not doing camp this year, and in the interest of keeping Anouk occupied somehow during these long hot days, I suggested that we make a...

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Long time no blog! We spent the last week in the Outer Banks with friends, and had what was possibly the most perfect vacation ever: good friends, lots of fun, and a span of the most perfect beach weather you could imagine -- non-scorching temps and not a drop of rain or spot of clouds except for a brief, cozy thunderstorm late one...

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Just a quick midweek note to say...we know everybody loves to play in the zoo fountains up front by the entrance, but don't forget the smaller ones over by the tigers/otters. We spent some time there on a hot day last week with friends and had an absolute blast (and it was much less crowded). There's a lot going on at the zoo...

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  The Elizabeth River Park reopened this past weekend, after being closed for extensive renovations, and we were there to check it out! The park is a unique one in the area, with a special focus on boating and outdoor watersports -- the boat landing there on the Elizabeth River is famous because it leads right to the Hot Ditch, a famous fishing...

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