A Return to Hawking

Last year we attended our inaugural St. Marys' Hawktoberfest, and while overall we had a great time, we felt that for our second outing, some adjustments should be made. For instance, given Owen, as President of SMCM's Softball Club is in an active feud with the varsity baseball coach, maybe we should skip the varsity vs alumni baseball game. Since Noa gets seasick and hated the river cruise last year, suppose we don't go on it. And in response to both children being horrified by the annual crab boil and resulting in Allen eating 12 crabs (both his and Owen's servings – we knew enough to opt for the vegetarian option for Noa) in record time while the kids waited outside the dinner tent before we had to head back to DC to make a Billy Bragg concert that night, we opted for take-out and an extra night in Ridge, MD.

But the two things we insisted on were renting a house on the water (though this year we went to the the other side of the peninsula for the bay and sound instead of the river) and making sure that all of us made it to the Great Bamboo Race (Noa opted for a nap last year) and even invited the Telfair-Chas to join us since Gabriel was back for his fall break.

We headed down to St. Mary's Thursday night after Noa's fall conference (they're doing great) and Owen's softball practice (eight members showed), checked into the house and made dinner. Afterwards, Noa and I crashed while Allen and Owen enjoyed both National League and American League Championship Series playoff games. Owen woke up early Friday morning to drive back to campus for his French class while Noa slept, Allen had a call, and I enjoyed kayaking in the sound. Once Owen returned and Noa eventually woke up, we picked up lunch, played games for a bit, had nap time, and picked up our official Hawktoberfest welcome package followed by a quick stop at the Dollar Store for provisions (the local grocery store for Ridge). When we returned, the kids opted to play catch while Allen and I decided to go explore the beach so that Allen could scout out locations for this year's Holiday card. As light started to change, we headed back to change into our approved outfits and started corralling the children for pictures. It didn't go well, culminating in Noa slipping while climbing on some rocks and soaking their shoe and pants. After a break which involved drying their shoes and them changing pants, we were eventually able to snap a lovely family portrait during sunset before heading to dinner, where Allen and Owen watched more playoff games on their phone.

The next morning, Allen and I got up earlyish to do some more exploring in the sound before returning to the house to enjoy a pancake breakfast having successfully procured syrup from the Dollar Store the day before followed by some more games and some napping while we waited for the Telfair-Chas to arrive. After they got there, we showed Steve and Megan the disappearing shoreline at high tide while Owen and Gabriel explored the road and Noa continued to nap. Once they awoke, we head to campus where we toured Owen's dorm room and headed to the river to inspect the race's entries, and partake in funnel cake and other snacks as the heats started. This year, there were only enough seaworthy vessels for two heats and only four boats made it past the start line for the first one (one of which sunk halfway on the course) and only three boats made it for the second heat which meant they all made it to the finals and no rowers were hurt in the races.

Afterwards, we stopped for takeout (and wine!) and headed back to the house to hang out for a few hours before the Telfair-Chas headed back to DC and we crashed. The next morning, we packed up the house, took one more picture on the beach and then said goodbye to Owen until Thanksgiving as he headed to school and the rest of headed back to DC.

(To see all of this year's Hawktoberfest pictures, click here.)