bobanddenisewanderlust

Saturday- After breakfast, we updated the budget and paid bills. Around 9, we were off to start errands. We went to an Xtra Gas Station on Rt. 1 which does “wacky weekends”, 6 cents off gas. We filled up at $3.39, the lowest we have seen for awhile.

We went to the Farmers Market in College Park where we bought strawberries, cantaloupe, cherries and cucumbers. We drove up the BW Parkway to Laurel. We had seen a store called The Dutchman. Mary Miller, a friend from work, and I had talked about it! Mary, if I gain weight this summer it is all your fault!! Shades of Lancaster PA, it is just like walking the market in Intercourse PA. Awesome!

We had a great time! We started by buying some cake for dessert tonight, moved to buying lemon pickles ( oh are they good!), to ham salad for lunch, broccoli salad for dinner, pepper turkey for sandwiches, and 4 slices of bacon for breakfast tomorrow morning. Oh, but that was not all…. in the bakery, we bought fresh whole wheat bread, a bag of 6 mini Kaiser rolls for the ham salad for lunches, small cinnamon rolls for tomorrow’s breakfast, and  chocolate chip cookies. By this time we were hungry, so we splurged on one fresh, melt in your mouth, doughnut each. Bob had the special of the month, the rum doughnut( we assume it was just flavoring, as the Amish do not drink alcohol). I had a chocolate drizzle glazed doughnut, which rivals Krispy Kreme. At least we did not finish our grocery shopping hungry!

We crawled out of there and headed to Walmart to finish our shopping. We hopped back on the BW parkway, knowing we will be heading back to The  Dutchman most weekends to pick up our meat and breads.

We staggered into the motor home with all the grocery bags, ate the delicious  ham salad for lunch, with the lemon pickles, and took a nap! This shopping business is hard work!

The weather was beautiful, with blue skies and cool weather. We took the dogs for a long walk, threw some pork chops on the grill for dinner, and sat out enjoying the fine weather until it was too cool to sit out any longer!

Sunday- We walked over to Wayne and Margie’s 5th wheel, hopped in their truck and rode to the Baltimore Aquarium.  We met up with Margie’s cousin Debbie and her husband Tim. We had a great time with them all day. We wandered over to the Aquarium, it cost $30 pp. each to visit the building, but I am happy to report it was worth every penny!

Bob with Wayne and Margie.

We started in the Australian exhibit, which is in the Glass Pavilion. I quickly discovered trying to catch pictures of moving fish, turtles,and birds is very tricky!

The first place we stopped, we spoke with the docent, who told us that yes, occasionally the fish will jump out of the tanks. They had one who did a couple of weeks ago, and had a devil of at time getting him back into the tank!

This parrot, was scared by an other parrot, and it flew into the door that we used to enter the room.this happened two weeks ago.  It knocked itself senseless and they had to have it taken to the infirmary to be monitored. So being there daily is not boring for the volunteers!

We moved on to the Pier 3 Pavilion, which includes the Sharks. Level 1 was Wings in the Water, Level 2 is Maryland Mountains to the Sea, Level 3 is Surviving through adaptations, Level 4 was Sea cliffs, Kelp Forest, Pacific Coral Reef, and Amazon River Forest. Finally Level 5 is the Tropical Rain Forest. 

I could not capture a decent picture of a shark, they were just moving so fast….

Notice all the divers in the pool.

Jeremiah was a bullfrog….

A Maryland Blue Crab

Coral.

This is a picture of one of the adaptive fish of the deep ocean.

Whale skeleton.

This Longhorn Cowfish came right  up to the glass and looked like it was trying to kiss me!

The beautiful coral was constantly moving.

The view of the harbor from the top level of the Aquarium.

A blue star fish.

Two starfish holding hands.

This Amazon turtle was standing on his tippy toes!

One large catfish!

A very large alligator ,just hanging out watching the people.

This is a very small poisonous dart throwing frog.

This red bird was singing to us in the rain forest.

A tree frog.

Finally, a lion fish.

Our last stop was in  the Pier 4 Pavilion. This includes that Dolphin Discovery area, not interesting, as they have stopped the Dolphin shows. This area also includes the Jellyfish exhibit.

These are upside down jellyfish.

You wouldn’t think a brainless organism could be so pretty, but they really were. There was a tank of beautiful blue ones, but they were traveling so fast I could not get a picture of them.

By this time we were pretty hungry, so we went to Phillips for lunch. They have moved the Phillips to the Power Plant. We had to wait 15 minutes for a table. Then 1.5 hours for our lunch to be delivered! Bob had the Po’ Boy Oyster sandwich and I had the Crab Imperial off the dinner menu. Good thing the company was interesting!  Bob slammed them on Yelp for the slow service.

From lunch, we went to the Baltimore World Trade Center building. Tim had taken his kids to the top so he knew about the observation deck. It was $5 each to ride the elevator. The view was magnificent!  Neat dragon paddle boats!

And we were only 4850 miles from paradise and 3540 miles from the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee!

There was a 9/11 memorial to the Marylanders who were lost on that awful day! That is Debbie, sadly studying the names and viewing the pictures.

We hadn’t even known about this observation deck. What a fun and interesting place to find! We returned home exhausted after a wonderful day!

Monday- It was another busy day at work. Margie and Wayne came over to our site for a chicken dinner. Before we left Breck, we had visited a “vinegar” store. While there we purchased some cranberry/pear vinegar. We had added a little olive oil and marinated the chicken overnight. Wow, was the chicken terrific!

Tuesday- A little quieter at work.

Wednesday- If you have been following the blog, you know that the last 10 months have been showered with health problems. Unfortunately, that is continuing.

Three weeks ago, Bob went for his routine stress test. When the cardiologist walked into the room, he said “Oh, you have Atrial Fibrillation”. Bob squeaked, “WHAT?”. The stress test was cancelled, and a Nuclear Stress test was scheduled for the next Wednesday. The Doc immediately put Bob on a blood thinner.

The next week he returned for the Nuclear Stress test (a long procedure where they give you dye to actually look at the blood vessels). He had a regular heart beat, and even with him running, they could not get his heart to fibrillate. 

Today, he returned for the follow-up appointment with the cardiologist. A witnessed episode of A-fib, documented, means he will have to stay on the blood thinner for the rest of his life. Atrial Fibrillation can cause heart attack and/or stroke due to blood clots forming when the heart is not pumping effectively. The medication Bob is now on,  is the new one, which does not require frequent blood tests.

The good news is that he is very healthy and the blood vessels in his heart are nice and clear. His diagnosis is ‘proximal fibrillation’. There is no treatment, just blood thinning to prevent blood clots. Good thing we found out before something awful happened!

So, this means Bob’s skiing days are over. We will still belong to the ski club and will go on ski trips, where I will ski with my buddies.  It also means that we are not going back to Breck this winter, which truly breaks out hearts! So what are we planning this winter? Not sure just yet….

Our mail arrived today with the package full of hospital/medical bills. Good thing I am working to make extra money! During the emergency room visit on 3/8, I had 2 , 4 mg doses of morphine and 1 , 2 mg dose of Ativan for the MRI. Plus one bag of IV fluids. The charge, for us to pay, after the insurance has paid, is $1024 for that! Huh? So I have to call about the exorbitant price. That is just ridiculous. .. Plus for some reason the hospital, when they put the information through to the Anesthesiologists, told them the policy was in my name and that we are with United Healthcare. NOT! So I had to call to get that straightened out, since UHC had never heard of me…. Anyway, we went to Ledo’s  in College Park with Margie and Wayne for dinner. They really liked  the pizza!

Thursday- Work was okay. Bob has been still working around the motor home .We went to Wayne and Margie’s 5th wheel for dinner and sadly said good-bye to our friends. They are heading south to visit Margie’s daughter and grandchild in Richmond before heading off on their summer travels.

Friday- A busy day at work, but not as bad as last Friday. I am excited that I rec’d a newer computer to use. Still have to get it completely set up for me. It was set up for another Case Manager, and with all the privacy safety stuff on it, changing computers is a major production, complete with a saucy can-can!

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