Great Bridge Lock Park

When we're out running errands on the weekends, we like to try to look up a nearby park to visit in between stops. Anouk gets to run off some steam -- we all get to stretch our legs -- and sometimes we find a place to add to our list of favorites. Everybody wins!

The weekend before last, we were out at breakfast at Greenbrier, and on the way home, stopped by Great Bridge Lock Park to explore. The park is named for the Army Corps of Engineers lock that was built to separate the salt water of the Elizabeth River from the fresh water of the Great Dismal Swamp. It's situated on a little peninsula -- on one side, you can watch big boats going through the lock on their way down (or up) the Intracoastal Waterway. On the other, you can see small boats and canoes dotting the tidal marsh. It's a great place for boat enthusiasts, that's for sure.

We spent a little while at the playground, which we rated a solid 8. No water feature (we're still looking for the perfect summertime spot to replace our favorite splash park up in DC), but there were a couple of climbing gyms, plenty of swings, and some cute riding animals. Here is me enjoying one of them. I am calling it 'Woman with Frog Butt.'

Work it.

Some other key features of the park include: a canal overlook, a spacious picnic area, and a walking trail that winds through the woods all the way around the peninsula. James was also really excited to see there was a boat launch -- he's looking forward to coming back in the spring with his new Christmas kayak.

Hooray! We love finding new places! Have you been to Great Bridge Lock Park? Or to Deep Creek Lock Park?

An afternoon in Olde Towne Portsmouth

As I mentioned earlier in the week, on Sunday, J., Baby A., and I took the ferry to Portsmouth. We had no particular plans of places to go or things to do. The wonderful museum district was right there, but because of the Redskins game later in the day, we didn't dare do anything too time-consuming that might prevent us from being back home in time for kickoff.

So we just walked for a bit. And ended up discovering some interesting little features about the city that we'd never known about before. In case you ever find yourself in a similar predicament, I give you a recap of our impromptu mini-walking tour of Historic Portsmouth, VA. Here are some of the things we saw and enjoyed.

-The seawall

The Portsmouth seawall stretches along the riverfront and walking it gives a wonderful view of the boats going past. Just on our way between the High Street and North Landings, we saw a couple of tugs (who sounded their horns obligingly -- is there anything more satisfying than the reverberating sound of a tugboat horn on a cloudy day?), a container ship, and a few beautifully painted yachts. Baby A. had a blast waving at them and added the word "boat" to her expanding vocabulary.

-Hog Island Lighthouse Lens

The Hog Island lens stood in a lighthouse on Hog Island (one of the Virginia barrier islands) until the island finally eroded away in the 1940s. Now the lens lives at the Portsmouth waterfront, just by the High Street ferry landing. The lens, dating from 1898, is cut through with tons of prisms, and huge, towering over even James, who towers over me and A. It was fun to walk around the glass pavilion and try and count all of the rainbows (hundreds and thousands of them. We didn't stand a chance).

-Trinity Church

Trinity Church was founded in 1761, served as a British garrison in the Revolutionary War, founded the Children's Hospital of the Kings Daughters in the 1890s, and features several beautiful Tiffany windows. It surrounds a gorgeous courtyard, and next to it is a really gloomily spooky old graveyard. Have I mentioned that one of my favorite things is to walk through graveyards and read the old names? My fingers itched for my grave-rubbing supplies.

-The Pass House

Currently, it's a photography studio, but from 1862-1864, the unassuming brick row house at the corners of Crawford and London Streets was a Union Army headquarters. To go outside the city, or across the river to Norfolk, you needed a pass, which you had to get at (you guessed it) the Pass House. We peeked over the gate and saw the door to the old pass office, and we also saw some really beautiful roses blooming by the fence. (We love January roses. Thanks, global warming!)

-Confederate Monument

It's a little unsettling to see the monument 'to our Confederate dead' standing so imposingly at the intersection of Court and High Streets (at least it was for me). From a purely objective standpoint, the monument is finely done, the carving of the soldiers who stand sentry on the four sides of the tall obelisk are super convincing, at least to a toddler -- Anouk kept pointing to them and calling, "Hi! Hi!" It was an experience to see it -- it made me mindful -- but all the same, it's one I'm glad I don't have to have every day.

-The Lightship Portsmouth Museum

The Lightship Portsmouth was built in 1915, kind of a traveling lighthouse used to help ships enter harbor at night. She was retired after almost 50 years of service, and now she's a museum featuring artifacts, photographs, old uniforms, and fitted out seaman's quarters (NONE of which we got to see because the museum itself was closed the day we went -- boo!) But we did get to explore the outside of the ship and pronounced it awesome.

Bonus attractions: The areas next to the High Street and North ferry landings, respectively, feature a red post-box and telephone booth donated by the city of Portsmouth in England. The telephone booth has an actual working pay phone in it, which is notable in and of itself. Definitely something to show the kids. A phone with a cord!

A dial tone! How quaint!

I hope you have enjoyed this brief collection all of the random things we happened to see as we moseyed along Olde Towne (those 'e's are driving me nuts!) Portsmouth. We sure did! I always make James stop when we see one of those old bronze historical marker signs so I can read it and on Sunday I read a dozen to my hearts' content. Hooray!

If you are wondering exactly what route we walked and are interested in recreating it, according to this map, we went up High Street to turn right on Dinwiddie, then right again on London Street all the way back to the ferry landing. Or you could just let the professionals take the lead.

Salt crystal painting

Salt crystal crafts seem to be popping up all over the internet lately. Just in the past week or so, I've run across tutorials for making your own DIY frosted windows, growing snowflakes and icicles in a jar, and making a salt crystal garden.

Baby A. and I decided to make a few tweaks to make this activity a little more toddler friendly, and did a little salt crystal painting one afternoon earlier this week. This craft rules because it's virtually mess free and because you are guaranteed to already have everything you need for it somewhere in your house.



The first step is to mix a salt solution. The perfect ratio is about one part salt to four parts water; we found that three tablespoons of salt in a 1/4 cup of water worked best for us. (We used table salt -- you can also use Epsom salts or borax crystals, though neither of those are safe for eating).

Add the salt to the water a little bit at a time, stirring to dissolve it as completely as possible in between. When the salt stops dissolving in the solution (crystals will be floating on top of the water and will remain at the bottom of your cup), nuke it in the microwave for about 20-30 seconds (it shouldn't be too hot). Stir some more, just to mix everything one final time, then grab some black construction paper, and start painting. For the brightest results, go over your designs a few times.

Lay your paper flat to dry someplace safe and warm while the water evaporates. We left ours on top of the radiators overnight, and in the morning...

Jack Frost had been by for a visit!

Baby A's "snowflake."

We definitely aren't going to win any art awards any time soon, but we had a lot of fun with this easy, wintery craft. Next time, we'll try adding tempera paint and try painting on white paper for a colorful glittery effect.

Have you ever crafted with salt crystals? Tell us about it!

Peninsula SPCA Petting Zoo and Exotic Animal Sanctuary

Baby A. and I met this badassed rooster (and a whole bunch of other animals) at the Peninsula SPCA petting zoo last week. Click on over to My Active Child to read all about our visit!

(I love this photo, btw. I think it sums up my focus for the new year. Sometimes you gotta climb on the fence, who cares what they say?)

The Elizabeth River ferry

James swears that we rode the Elizabeth River ferry together years ago as part of a romantic night out, but I have no memory of this ever having happened, which bothers me a little, because it means that 1) I am getting old and don't remember or 2) James is getting old and remembering wrong. 

Anyway! After the span of rainy days last week, we were all of us feeling a little stir crazy this weekend. We wanted to get out and go for a walk by the water, so we headed downtown to Waterside, and while there, saw the ferry approaching. On the spur of the moment, we got in line, paid for our tickets, and before we knew it, were heading across the river to Portsmouth (or Porchmouth, if you have a Tidewater accent, which James says I do. I don't hear it. This could be another sign of his creeping senility. He did just have a birthday, you know). 

It was cold out, so we sat inside next to the heaters, where it was toasty warm and where, through the big picture windows, we could see the shipyard, the yachts going by, the gulls swooping low over the water. See Anouk's face in the photos at the top of this entry, her mouth open like "Whoa..."? She made that face the whole way across. 

The ferry is great way of getting from Norfolk to Portsmouth, and vice versa. It's totally worth it to not have to worry about driving through the tunnel and finding parking. But more than that, it's great cheap entertainment, enough of a novel experience to be considered a destination in itself. I can't think of another way to get this kind of up-close view of the waterfront without paying way more than the ferry fare ($1.50 each way for adults, free for kids under 38 inches tall). Next time, we're going to wait for warm weather and sit up top on the open deck so we can have the whole 360 view.

The journey across the river took about 10 minutes, and then we were in Olde Towne Portsmouth, where we spent a couple of hours roaming around. But this entry is already getting picture-heavy, so I think I'll save our exploits there for another day and leave you with some additional information about the ferry: click here for a schedule and map.

I've been getting a lot of the same questions from commenters and emailers lately, so I decided to be efficient and post an FAQ. WTWGrow@gmail.com if there's anything you'd like me to add! 

80/20 Burger Bar

James's birthday was at the end of December. Because our birthdays fall near Christmas (mine was the 26th), neither of us have the traditional birthday party experience, but we do like to go out for a nice dinner together. But finding a sitter during the week after the holidays is a little bit of a feat, and we'd been abusing the familial babysitting privileges, so we knew this year that we would have to bring Anne along with us. With that in mind, we wanted to find someplace where a toddler wouldn't be too disruptive -- but a place that was still festive enough for a birthday meal.

When we look for a kid-friendly restaurant, we tend to keep three things in mind: a toddler-friendly ambience, but with dishes that will also appeal to more sophisticated grownup palates; bonus points if the food is reasonably healthy. Usually, we can get two out of three, and when we do, we mark it to go back to. 80/20 Burger Bar on 21st Street in Norfolk was the rare place that offered us everything on our list.

The restaurant is warm and inviting (I read somewhere that the owners built everything in the restaurant themselves, which is super cool), with a bustling atmosphere that covers up baby chattiness. There is a full-service bar, but it's separated from the eating area, which avoids that whole Sweet Home Alabama "you have a baby? in a BAR?" dilemma. The kids' menu offers darling slider burgers and some other options to accomodate a little pickiness. And the rest of the menu was novel and fun and delicious enough to get us parents excited, too. (James had the Alamo Burger and I had the redneck Wellington...a burger wrapped in pastry, with mushroom duxelles and goat cheese. How cool is that?)

Here is Anouk eating every. single. thing. on her plate

Our favorite thing about 80/20 is their commitment to serving grass-fed, grass-finished, locally sourced beef. We try to avoid unpastured meats for our family whenever possible, but especially for Anne, since she can't make decisions about what type of food she eats for herself. It makes eating out a little tricky at times, so it was nice not to have to worry about it. Everything on the menu was fair game.

Some other highlights: The extensive selection of french fries (bay spices! rosemary and parmesan! fire-hot-pepper blend!), house-made flavored sodas (alcohol-spiked available for the adults), and some really refreshingly creative sides (order some smack and cheese for the kids -- and for yourself).

And now, some things to keep in mind if you decide to visit: 80/20 opened just a few weeks ago and is getting a lot of (well-deserved) buzz, which does mean that wait times can be a little long, especially on the weekends. We were told 20 to 25 minutes, which was just long enough for us to pop over to Carolina Cupcakery for some birthday treats, but friends and family who have gone have been told to plan for an hour or more. It might be a good idea to call ahead to suss out wait times, especially if you plan on bringing the kidlets. Also, there have been rumors that chef Joe Pavey is planning on paring down the menu after a month or so, so make sure you order everything you want this go around in case it doesn't make the cut (Pimento cheese. You've got to order the appetizer cheese plate!)

We had a great time. It was a wonderful birthday dinner for a wonderful dad.

Cheers to you, Jamesy! Bottoms up!

Have you been to 80/20 Burger Bar? Are you planning to go? What did/would you order?

Happy weekend, everybody!

A visit to the Virginia Aquarium (and why to buy a membership)

Happy 2013! We celebrated the new year at the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center with our good friends, Erin and Baby J. and Sarah and Baby A. (By the way, aren't there a lot of Baby A.s in our circle? Is A. a popular initial for your crowd, too?) We'd heard such good things about the aquarium and had been meaning to go for months. So spending New Years Day there felt right, like we were making good on a resolution at the very start of the year.

The first thing I did upon arriving was buy a year's membership, and here's why:

• Admission for just one visit is pretty steep: $21 per adult and $15 per child (aged 3 and up). We bought the cheapest membership (the Otter level, for $80), which will pay for itself in just two visits. 
• Speaking of numbers of visits, you'll definitely need more than one to experience everything the aquarium has to offer. We were there for two hours, and only managed to hit about 2/3 of the Bay and Ocean Pavilion. There's still a whole other pavilion, a library, and a theatre waiting to be explored (not to mention special events, like storytimes, nature treks, and boat rides).  
• Membership has some great perks, like express entry (valuable in the summertime, when the aquarium gets crowded) and substantial discounts for the cafe and IMAX movie theatre. 
• The aquarium is awesome. It's just plain awesome. And we loved it. 

Baby J. ain't afraid of no horseshoe crabs.

Some things we were especially excited about: the large walk-through tank, filled with colorful fish and coral; the up-bubble that allowed us to see into the Komodo dragon habitat and come face to face with the giant lizard; the stingray petting tank (I almost had a heart attack when a friendly ray leaped up to say hello); listening to the very knowledgeable docent tell us all about the crocodiles; watching the seals zoom happily through the water. And the sea turtles (Anouk said "turtle" for the first time!) -- and the turtle nursery -- and pressing buttons in the submersible play area -- and, well, you get the picture. It was all pretty great and we're already looking forward to going back.

We had lunch at the cafe, and I want to give a special shout out to the staff there -- who not only didn't mind when Baby Anne accidentally upended her plate onto the floor but told us not to worry about it, either. That kind of attitude is invaluable when you're out with a toddler and it was much appreciated.

Um, take a look at the scratches on those windows. Holy cow Komodo dragon!

What about you? How did you celebrate the new year? Are there any local landmarks you're looking forward to visiting in 2013?