Memorial Weekend

We spent Memorial Weekend out in Maryland at Minx' parents' holiday house, which is totally beautiful. It's quiet, in the middle of nowhere and backs out onto the Chesapeake River, which is fantastic. We got to leave early on Friday as my boss really kindly let me finish 2 hours earlier than normal, went the back routes to Anapolis to avoid traffic and did some shopping...which I totally didn't plan on, but found 2 fantastic dresses that were purchased anyway. We made it to the house at around 10pm and managed to avoid most of the traffic, which everyone appreciated! Saturday was spent at a Tea Party festival which, as a Brit, was really interesting! It's basically a celebration of the Americans standing up to King George III and is clearly something people here are very proud of - but something that goes almost totally unmentioned in British history classes. I had only the very foggiest of notions that we once ruled the US until I was about 15...and my knowledge still isn't that great, 10 years later! I know that we have more history to cover in school than the US does, but I do think that more time should be given to more recent history than to the Tudors, for example. The Tudors are AWESOME, don't get me wrong, but knowledge of the relationship between the UK and US is far more important for modern life. There's a reason why our cultures are so different yet similar, and learning about out mutual history seems to be to be a great idea.

So the Tea Party was fun :D There was a parade with 2 pipe bands (yay!) and a group of people dressed as English redcoats too, with a Union Jack! That made me very happy to see. There were stalls to look at, a Punch and Judy show (which doesn't scare me as much as it did when I was 10...but is still not something I like), birds of prey and some very yummy food. I had funnel cake. I've never had funnel cake before! It's basically doughnut batter cooked in hot oil, but instead of being doughnut shaped it's basically a bit pile of squiggles. It's given to you with powdered sugar sprinkled over the top and it delicious, but very heavy and sweet. We had one between the four of us, and that was more than enough, yet there were people there with one each! I think if I ate that much sugar and grease at once I'd feel very ill. We spent Sunday relaxing around the house and enjoying the wonderful weather, and the Child and I made origami fortune tellers :D Apparently they're called 'cootie catchers' in the US, but I couldn't tell you why. I used to make them when I was in primary school. I didn't explain to the Child what they're used for, but she had fun. We coloured them in and she calls them 'chicken beaks' and uses them to steal people's noses. Monday was more relaxing, and then we drove back to DC. It was a great weekend :)