Spring Breaking

We've been traveling a lot lately, so instead of using the kids' Spring Break for a weeklong adventure in some exotic locale, we opted to spend a long weekend in New York and then devote the rest of the week to dragging Owen to local college campuses to jumpstart the college visit phase of his childhood. He was less than thrilled. In order to make the process not entirely painful, we recruited his friend Gabriel to join him and then teamed the visits with a fun counter activity (granted some were less fun and more utilitarian). 

American was up first and was the only visit that also included a tour (note to parents: Spring Break is when all the accepted students tour campus so maybe don't try to book tours the week of). The boys weren't really into the tour itself (too many people and a too perky guide), but it at least gave them a reference point for the rest of the week, and for Owen it was a nice reprieve before his dental appointment later that afternoon.

Next was Johns Hopkins which in theory involved the whole family and the Telfair-Chas, but in practice meant that Nora hung out and read on the Decker Quad while the rest of walked around campus. The boys primarily perked up outside the biochemistry building when they happened upon a number of liquid nitrogen tanks on its loading dock as well as picking up some handouts from Hopkin's Consent campaign to decorate their friends lockers at school. Once we finished our self-guided tour and picked up Nora, we headed out for lunch followed by a trip to the Baltimore Aquarium before returning home and heading to the Kennedy Center for Mean Girls.

The boys finished the week with a trip to Maryland and a semi-guided tour by one of Allen's Center for Global Sustainability colleagues. Despite the size of the campus, it was the boys favorite (and the cheapest of the three). But the after-tour was clearly the best part of the day, when we all met up for some axe-throwing. While everyone made at least one hit, team "Anti-Geneva" dominated team "Future Axe Murderers," winning all three rounds and even making the final "kill shot" (though some people contributed more than others).

The next day we headed up to Katherine's for a day (or rather, an afternoon) of yard work in preparation of the most epic Easter Egg Hunt ever (or at least the most cash rich one we've ever participated in) followed a lovely Easter dinner at Mom Mom's. 

The kids had one last day off of school (officially for teachers to enter grades; unofficially for the kids to all submit negative COVID tests before returning, so Owen and his Duke friends organized a morning of climbing followed by lunch and a movie, and graciously allowed Nora to join. The kids returned pretty exhausted, but pretty happy and ready to start the final term of the year.

(To see all the Spring Break post-New York pictures, click here.)