Baltimore, MD: Inner Harbor; tour of the USS Constellation

Listening to the audio tour

Captain's dining room

Captain's bed

Crew's sleeping area

Baltimore, MD: first, the hotel

This is the hotel we stay in most of the time when we visit Baltimore. It's just a few blocks from Inner Harbor, so we're able to walk there while Matt has the car for work. It's a Holiday Inn built inside an old bank.

Downstairs checking out the old safe door

View of Baltimore from our window

Closer view of the mural on the health clinic wall. The monument at the top center of the photo is the first Washington Monument. We managed to make our way there from the hotel on foot during one of our trips, planning to tour inside, but the gates were chained and locked up. We later found out that it was closed due to safety issues.

Carnegie Science Center:

The Sports Works building at the Carnegie Science Center is a regular stop for us each time we are in or near Pittsburgh. Love this place!

Sorry for the smudgy cellphone pics. :)

Matt and Maya on the climbing wall

Seth on the human yo-yo

The Body Cam: A virtual ride through the human body

Inside the Body Cam

Checking and comparing heart rates

This shows examples of what can be viewed from different kinds of imaging machines (x-ray, CT, MRI, etc)

learning about the various types of joints in the human body

giant hockey table

Riley in the baseball pitch cage

Basketball high jump

Timed sprint

Seth flipping on the trampoline

Maya on the trampoline

Matt on the trampoline

Riley 20 feet up on the counterbalanced unicycle

Lincoln's Boyhood Home

On our way home from St. Louis, we saw signs on the interstate in Indiana for Lincoln's Boyhood Home memorial. We went to check it out, barely making it there before closing time. Maya was hoping to do the Jr Ranger program there, but we didn't have time for all of the activities. Hoping to get back there again sometime other than winter to do the Jr Ranger program, walk the trail to the home site, and see the working farm.

St. Louis Arch

Maya has been wanting to work on Jr Ranger badges since she saw Bindi Irwin talking about them on her show. She and Riley did the Jr Ranger activities at the Museum of Westward Expansion at the Arch.

The Mississippi River

City Museum, St. Louis

Pictures from City Museum in St. Louis. We were introduced to City Museum as a side trip that was part of the 2005 Live and Learn Unschooling conference and have been wanting to get back there since. It is a wonderland -- a work of art with hidden passageways and mazes and tangles of things to climb through, slide down, and explore.

A few pictures from the 2005 trip:

Maya, 4 years old and Seth, 2 years old.

Riley, at 7 years old, is in the grey shirt. Maya is climbing. The two boys in striped shirts are Mason (standing) and Caleb (sitting), our unschooling friends from Lexington.

Matt climbing with Seth

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Here are the pictures from this trip January, 2010:

On our way up to the 7-story slide.

Taking the 3rd floor slide down to the lobby.

Ri, Maya, and Seth climbing from one of the planes to the tower.

On the wing

Ri, Maya, and Seth

Shoelace factory

Skateless skatepark

In the Art room

Writing with the giant pencil.