Appreciation Days

I mentioned the parade in my previous post, but not much about the reason behind it.  The Calvert Marine Museum hosts an annual Patuxent River Appreciation Days (PRAD)  event.  The event brings attention primarily to the Patuxent River and the Chesapeake Bay to highlight the need for continued restoration and clean up of the waterway. 

 
 
 Children are stars of this gathering.  It's all family-friendly and child-friendly.  Who do you want to convince to clean up the environment.. everyone.  How do you get nearly everyone excited about it.. get the kids excited.



 The museum opens their doors, without the usual admission fee, for all to wander and enjoy the premises.  The museum itself is amazing for its modest size.  The hands-on exhibits keep the youngest engaged, while the history of the area has something for all ages.  Inside there are fossils from the nearby Calvert Cliffs and the kids can touch and explore many of them.  The exhibit includes a River Otter that swims and frolics in its enclosure.. which everyone enjoys.  I just wish we saw them in the wild.  That's the point of part of the museum though.  It brings awareness to the state of the bay and the need to clean up our environment.


 

 The other 'learning' occurs with volunteers from environmental organizations, such as Sierra Club, University of Maryland's Center for Environmental Science, U of MD Extension Service and others.  One of the cool exhibits was a large tub with Atlantic Sturgeon in it!  They were fairly big, maybe 10 to 12 inches?  I learned that DNR is trying to bring them back to the Patuxent River, though it's proving tougher than originally thought.

 
 

Continuing in the tradition of FUN, small wooden boats can be put together by even very young kids with a little help from an older guide.  The noises coming from a big tent full of people hamering and putting little boats together is interesting.  Clack, clack, bing, clack..ding, clack,  bing clack. I wish I had recorded it. It was awesome!  The fun continued in the creek as well.  Kids in a pedal boat and canoes darted around, sometimes mildly colliding for more fun.. not intended as best I could tell.  The Drum Point Screw Pile Light House was open as well.  It's a great reminder of what it took to keep the vessels safe on the bay.

Sue Ellen Garner

If all that were not enough, there is more.  The early fall is the perfect time to encourage the arts.  An area is set up where local artists display their wares.  Sculptures, paintings and photography are all on display in little tents for the crowd to admire and hopefully purchase.  Sue Ellen Garner's photography stopped me in my tracks.  Her landscape and nature photography is just fantastic.  Many of her photographs are of the same subjects that I hold dear like Heron, Eagles and of course the iconic T.J. Bridge.  Like most artists, Sue Ellen isn't much for having her own photograph taken, but I snuck this one in.  I hope you take a minute and check out her site Sue Ellen Garner Photography.

Everett (above) was fascinated with the oyster shells laying around.  He had been sitting nicely and picking them up, but then decided it was time to stand.  As you notice, Erin (mom) was ready with a little stability assistance.  The big brother was up in the Light House with Granddad, so picture taking is necessary! Hope they came out well!

Short excursions by boat were available as well.

Gee Freeman

An artist was painting a scene out of Halloween and it was all in shades of black and white.  Our conversation revealed that she doesn't usually paint outdoors, but was trying to make use of the amount of black acrylic she had on hand.  The kids that wandered around were interested and helped her decide on what to put in the painting.  One thing leads to another, and I found that most of her work is done in a 'scratch' style.  If I understand it correctly, this is where a dark ink is spread on top of a while clay, then the artist uses an exacto blade to create while lines.  Eventually this reveals the image the artist pictures.  In Gee's case most of her works are portraits of pets.  She's very fond of animals and quickly talked about the rescue that her daughter runs. I didn't understand the scope of this particular rescue until I went to their website: www.petswithdisabilities.org.  This organization is extreme, they rescue those pets many folks pass by.  They have dogs with spinal cord injuries that cannot use their hind limbs, and have specially made wheel chairs for them.  Wonderful! They have an event next Saturday in Prince Frederick... you should check them out!

"Scratch Painting"

  

Speaking of rescues, the Greyhound rescue had several dogs with them in a small pen.  I'm pretty sure this was Greyt Expectations Greyhound Rescue out of Lusby.  Again, this is a fabulous organization looking for homes of some truly wonderful dogs.  Another dog caught my attention nearby, he is a Goldendoodle.  This guy is called Sloop and he's a great boat dog.  On top of just being a laid back friendly guy, he's also hypo-allergenic.  The Goldendoodle breed is a hybrid of Golden Retriever and Poodle.  Sloop's great grandparents of a Golden and Poodle started his lineage. I was told by owner, Alli (sp?),  that the breed comes in similar sizes to the Poodle - standard and miniature, etc. 

 

These guys were so friendly.

 PRAD of course has food vendors on the property.  Some typical fair kind of food like burgers,  popcorn, funnel cakes and the like are available.  The unusual though included oysters.  You can enjoy all of this while listening to the live bands playing on two different stages.   The Southern Maryland Jazz Orchestra was playing the main stage when I was there. On the other side of the property vendors from local wineries and farms sold their products.

So now that you know about this great event, you really should check it out for yourself next year.  I'll be waiting for you.

Cheers,

Brian

Parade!

Yesterday while having lunch at The Lotus Kitchen, an announcement was made.  "They're getting ready to shut down the traffic on the Island for the parade." A Parade? 

 

It turns out that in conjunction with the Patuxent River Appreciation Days (PRAD) held at the Calvert Marine Museum, there is a parade.  This is not like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, or the Mummers Parade in Philadelphia.  This is not the Rose Bowl Parade with elegant floats.  This is the epitome of Small Town USA kind of a Parade.   This is maybe a small notch above Mayberry.

I think for the most part the photos will tell most of the story here, but let me say a few things up front.  This is a parade where there very well may be as many IN the parade as were watching - at least near the beginning of the route where I stood.  There were some dignitaries.  Bernie Fowler, former Maryland State Senator and activist for the cleanup of the Patuxent River Watershed was the lead.  I'll call him the Grand Marshall - though I'm not sure if that's a real title for this parade. It was ironic to see Mr. Fowler as I had just met his son, Bernie Fowler Jr. that morning.. but that's another story.  Mrs. World rode in an Corvette convertible to tout the contest (Mrs. World) that is coming to Solomons next month.  Yet the best part of the parade was truly the "localness" of it..  yeah, I'm not sure that's a real word, but that's how I'm viewing it.

The parade was full of Scouts - boys and girls, ROTC squads from several High Schools, the Patuxent High Marching Band, some cheerleaders, and we cannot forget the Shriners and Knights of Columbus.  So, lets get to the photos.

 

 The Color Guard opened the parade.  The Guard was made up of men from several local Posts of the VFW.  You can see Mr. Fowler in the car behind them.

The Knights of Columbus came out in their finery.  I really don't understand what they do, but they have some very cool uniforms.. Are they called uniforms?












The guy to the left was particularly enthusiastic.  And like my other posts on Solomons... what do you see... happy, smiling people!

 The young boy has a 'gun' that shoots bubbles; if you look close you can see one.

 There were several Scout Packs out.

This little one, saw me taking photos, and I got a nice smirky smile and wave.

I'm wondering if anyone knows what troop was riding on the Mission Bar-b-Que Truck shown below? This young guy was the 'ham.'

His buddy to his right gets a close up:

Did you know there's a Babywearing International association?

Again, a very happy group.

There were a lot of J.R.O.T.C.  organizations at the parade.  These young folk were looking good, marching well, but as we all know, Drill Sergeants look for the details.

There were two teams that were getting some... coaching as they marched.

I won't point them out specifically, but the dialogues was something like this:

McDonough H.S.  Promfret, MD

Advisor: "We don't swing from the elbow, we swing our arms!"
Silence: for a few seconds.
Advisor: "We swing our arms, not our elbows... will someone fix his arm... swing the arm... will someone fix that before I break it....  OKAY, that's better... let's go"

Another was similar on another Team..
Advisor: "Use the whole street... spread out"
Team:  *adjusts positions*
Other Advisor:  "Check your spacing... hold out your arms.. how close are you....  straight lines.."

It was fun to whatch and hear, and truthfully, most of the Teams looked quite sharp.




















Looks like the Navy is in good shape too. I couldn't tell what school this was.  Leonard Hall?

 These young woman had style and snap in their marching.  They were wonderful to watch.






The band played..

 Precision.

 The United Way took on a Mardi Gras theme.
FUN.

 Again, couldn't quite figure out who this group is.

 Now, the Shriners... LOTS of them... including a mascot.  I'll call him Fezz.

Does anyone know what the BOUMI TEMPLE is?  Well Google and you shall receive.  Boumi is the arabic word for Owl.. and that's apparently one of the symbols for the Shriners..  The main fame comes from their support of childrens hospitals.

  


 This was inspiring...  if there's a will there's a way.. Segway!





 The Shriners have all the transportation.  Segway...check.
Golf Cart... check.   Motorcycles.. check.  Three wheelers...check.  A float... check.  Flying carpets (sort of)... check.  Big Rigs..(sort of)... check!



































 A lovely older lady approached me at the end of the parade asking if I had gotten pictures of the parade.

She was specifically interested in the Shriners float.  She had wanted to get a picture of her husband but the camera had turned off.

I'm hoping Thelma may will see this, and maybe Mr. Bouchard is one of the three gents you can see.  I was not able to get the fourth gentleman that was on the other side.

 Did I mention there were clowns as well?  I kind of like clowns, but if you really think about it.. they're a bit creepy.. don't you think?







































































 And you definitely need to showcase the local Fire and EMS crew.  A parade needs some big equipment to show off..  The red and black color scheme is beautiful too.

 


 Some other dignitaries brought up the end of the parade.

Not sure who this is... maybe Home Coming Queen?

And I guess the Yacht Club has a Queen too.



















 And then Mrs. World!

 The parade closed out with some of the politicians, but I'm not throwing that powder keg in here.


The crowd dispersed, and the only thing left was a bit of a traffic jam.


 

 Till next time,

 Blessings,
Brian