Swamps get a bad rap for being hot, humid, and stinky and a terrible place to be in summer. But don't believe it! Swamp Stomp at First Landing State Park this summer has been a blast. For those who aren't familiar with the concept: the program involves a short hike through the woods, under trees laden with Spanish moss. The park ranger hauls up big netfuls of muck from the bottom of the swamp and spreads it on the boardwalks. Then you root through it to search for the water bugs, amphibians, and invertebrates that live there.

This event is super hands on, and kids are encouraged to touch and explore, to gently hold and examine the things they find and compare them to pictures and information provided by the ranger, who does her best to make sure that everybody finds something! Anouk found a tadpole (with legs, halfway through metamorphosis!) and a couple of water scorpions and man, you would have thought she'd found gold nuggets. I love to see her getting less squeamish with bugs and squiggly things and to learn about the landscape that she lives in.




Besides learning about swamp life, we also heard, as we hiked, some fun facts about the dune ecosystem of the park, the variety of trees and vegetation (did you know this is the farthest north Spanish moss can grow?), and water quality (did you also know that the tannins in leaves make the swamp water super pure to drink? -- but I'm not going to try it any time soon).

Swamp Stomp is held at the park every Tuesday and Friday throughout the summer and is only one of the fantastic programs that First Landing puts on. Check out the full roster of offerings here.

PS: BUG SPRAY. We've found picaridin to be the best against mosquitoes, ticks, and those awful biting flies.

Say hello to our latest "pets!" We picked them up in their cage from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Brock Environmental Center at the beginning of last month. Our oysters are tiny -- spat on shells, which basically is a technical way of saying baby oysters. Or oyster larvae, but I like baby oysters better.

Over the course of the next year, Anouk and I will be growing these oysters into bigger oysters that look more like the ones you are accustomed to seeing. At the end of that year, they will be transplanted back into the Chesapeake Bay, to help purify the water and rebuild dwindling local oyster populations. The CBF Oyster Gardening Program is open to the public, and training (you have to register and take a seminar) is held at the start of each summer.

So far, our oysters are doing really well. I think. It's kind of hard to tell with oysters. In any event, they look exactly like they did when we got them, maybe slightly bigger. They also have been given names -- Anouk named them Moana and Maui (Moana are on the left side and Maui the right).

As far as pets go, oysters are pretty chill. Every week, we head down to the marina where their cage hangs off of the dock into the water. We tumble their cage and hose the oysters down to remove silt (too much can smother them). This week, we also had to remove a small crab that had scuttled in through the bars, molted, and gotten to big to get out on its own.



We are going to blog our oyster adventures over the next year, and hope this will bring awareness to the CBF's awesome program and encourage others to get involved! To read more about the CBF Oyster Gardening program, click here.  For more information on Chesapeake Bay oysters in general, click here.

These oysters are not for eating! --> Anouk wanted me to add that. You are destined for greater things, Maui/Moana. Looking forward to seeing how far you'll go!

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 these days, some highlights: a new Masai giraffe has arrived (Noelly) and we heard from a keeper that Imana, the resident female, is expecting her second calf? foal? in late summer. Speaking of baby animals, the baby zebra (Emilie!) is out and about in the enclosure and on our most recent visits, we've spied her running and jumping like crazy. There's also the new cassowary exhibit, over by the binturongs, worth a look. Oh, and the goats are back for the season.

We love our zoo!

One of the perks of living right by the beach is that you get to know it in all types of weather. There's the stormy spring beach-- the summer sunny beach -- the autumn beach, with the goldenrod growing in the dune grass. And the snowy beach in winter, quiet and austere.

When we woke up after last night's snowfall, James and I bundled Anne up, and then bundled ourselves up (we're talking two pairs of fleece leggings here, it was cold) and headed down the dunes to see what we could see. The wind and waves had blown and melted the snow below the tideline, but above it, there was a dusting of white caught on the grasses and the bark of the scrubby beach pines. The sand was frozen where the water had touched it, and heaps of frozen sea foam was mounded up on the jetties (looking a lot like whipped cream). There were little sandpiper tracks all over the white fluff, marking where they'd been.






Before too long we had to go or else we would have frozen solid. But I was awfully glad we went. It was a treat to see our familiar beach with its white cap on for a change.

I'm blogging about our afternoon at the Norview Community Center Splash Pad over at My Active Child today! So fun. We brought a bunch of kids ranging from 1 to 13, and everybody had a great time.

What are your favorite spraygrounds in the area? Let us know, we're building a list.

Halfway through the week! Be sure to do something nice for yourself today, to celebrate.