City Fix

I love, love, love, living in the country and raising my kids, gardening, raising animals, hiking, etc. etc.  However, every once in awhile I need a city fix.  I like to shop (not necessarily buy) at the malls and get a look at the latest fashions, sit at a cafe and people watch, eat restaurant foods different than what are offered in my small town (I had a steak and stilton salad... mmmm), and go to a show or other cultural event.  

Our city of choice is the Baltimore/Washington D.C. area because that's where my husband sometimes works.  We know it well, and the free museums, the history, and the beauty at our nation's capital are a bonus. 

Photo: National Mall, ftsblog.net

We've just returned from a whirlwind trip down there with plans to meet people from his work (what a nice group of people!), get military IDs updated, see a show, Christmas browse, and go to a work party with my husband's company.  The company party was at Baldwin's Station in Sykesville, Md. -  one word about that - wow!  I'm going to try to make Baldwin's puff pastry wrapped asparagus.  My kids also got to see the top-notch Liberty High School showing of A Christmas Carol in Eldersburg, MD.  The trip was a hurricane of activity in two days.  We didn't even get to see our friends from when we lived down there because we wouldn't have had proper time to spend with them!

Baldwin's Station
Sykesville, MD

One evening, we took our children to see Shear Madness at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.  Shear Madness is a comedy mystery with up-to-the-minute humor (and lots of references to recent news events) that lets the audience solve the crime.  The cast improvises during the play to fit the script to the audience's responses.  The show is "shear" fun and the kids were enchanted and entertained.   

  

While it's wonderful to live life as a country mouse, I do occasionally love getting a taste of the "fancy" with the city mice!

Without culture, and the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a jungle. This is why any authentic creation is a gift to the future.

~Albert Camus