Wednesday, June 11, 2008

More Fun Than a Barrel of Monkeys

So, I forgot to tell you about our field trip.

On Monday, only the hottest day of the year, we were supposed to go to the Baltimore Aquarium and Fort McHenry (the fort the Star Spangled Banner was written about).

Mikayla and I arrived at the school at 9 am to board the buses at 9:15. Well, 9:15 came and went, and no buses. 9:30, 10:00, 10:15. Did I mention that it was the hottest day of the year? (106 degrees with the heat index!!!!) I could a good long time without waiting in a hot, crowded hallway with a bunch of loud kids again! (Am I showing my age? At least I didn't ask anyone to 'stop making that racket'!

Finally at 10:30 the buses came...four bright shiny charter buses complete with dvd players and air conditioning. Oh, wait...one of the buses that they sent didn't have air conditioning! AHHHHH!

How do we decide who gets to be on this bus?

I vote that if you have been a problem child during the year you should have to ride this bus...I mean what better way to calm a bunch of rowdy kids down than the stuff them into a metal container for 2 hours with no air conditioning? hahaha

But really, they decided that we would wait for the bus company to send another bus...so we waited for another half hour. (At this point one of the mom's suggested that they send some of the kids now and make some of the kids wait...so basically, as long as she and her kid were on a bus that got to go, she didn't really give a darn about anyone else. Nice.)

So, finally at 11 am we left for Baltimore. It was actually a nice drive, and by far the nicest bus I have ever been on. Of course, we had to skip Fort McHenry because there just wasn't time...but, that might not have been a bad thing given the heat warning!

And the aquarium was AWESOME. We have never been before, frankly because it is so expensive, but taking one kid at a time wasn't so bad. And it was worth it!

They had so many fun exhibits, and it is an amazing building of glass and metal, filled with cool waterfalls and every crazy animal you can think of!



They also had a dolphin show which was Mikayla's favorite part. She made sure to sit in the "splash zone" and was thrilled when she got totally soaked.

I, however, had no such desire (I know, I'm a fuddy duddy) and made sure to still well above this area.

And, on a side note, I have to say I LOVE LOVE LOVE my new camera. There was group of loud women behind me all trying to take pictures of the dolphin show. Every time one of the dolphins would do a neat trick all I heard was, "Oh, I missed that shot" or "Dang my camera" or my favorite, the mild obscenities and laughing statements about having to watch their language (although not doing it) since they were part of the Catholic School field trip.

Of course, after listening to them carry on for 30 minutes I really had a strong desire to turn around and tell them that I had gotten the perfect shot, many of them in fact! hehehe (I resisted this impulse, but it's just a little reminder of one of the many reasons I am NOT getting into heaven.)

Other than trying to stuff six hours worth of stuff into three, it was a pretty great day.

9 comments:

lbugsh2 said...

See Denise you are to going to get in heaven, you could have turned around and snapped at the women taking pictures and you did not. Way to go.

Hilary said...

A) You are a fuddy duddy
b) Gotta love SLR's, what lens did you take those with?
c) You shoud look into a family pass at the aquarium. I know that a lot of the families in our ward get memberships to places around here, becuase they can go all year for free, and it's cheaper to do that for their family than to pay for each individual ticket.

Denise said...

I don't know!!! I had the 18-55 on most of the time, but I did get the 55-200 out for part of the dolphin show.

Charlene said...

Between you and Lara sharing your amazing and fun activities, I am going to see if Roger can get a job out there! It sounds like so much fun!!!

alexandra said...

Denise, you've got some serious talent. Are you sure you didn't drag and drop all those pics off the website?

Kim said...

What an amazing field trip. I knew we shouldn't live in Utah!

Kimber said...

love, Love, LOVE the pictures!!

I think dealing with parents is 10times worse than dealing with their children :)

Amberlyn said...

Oh my gosh, what? I'm not understanding your camera lingo!!! I'll have to call you.

What a CRAZY day!!!

But what AMAZING pictures you got out of it!!!

Fun Dolphins!!!

Lara said...

After living in Baltimore for 3 years and Glen having corporate passes to the National Aquarium, I must say I highly recommend a family pass for a season. My kids never tired of going there. We don't go near as often now, but we never regret when we do. The Maryland science center and children's museum (Port Discovery) are also nearby and well worth the trip.

I hope your school got some money back on the whole bus fiasco...although you definitely got to go to the more exciting part of the field trip. :)

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