Salisbury, MD - May 28, 2009

Thursday 5/28
We slept in and had breakfast with Melissa (well, more like she made it and we ate it), Craig had headed off to work well ahead of our even stirring to get out of bed. After we'd got around and packed the last of our stuff back in the car we headed over to the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art.

Like the sign says...Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art, Salisbury, MD.

The grounds at Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art, Salisbury, MD.

Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art, Salisbury, MD.

Walking the trail around Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art, Salisbury, MD.

Canada Geese at Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art, Salisbury, MD. Yes folks, those are live.

Flowers at Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art, Salisbury, MD.

It may not sound like the most interesting place, but it was really neat...unfortunately they don't allow photography in the galleries, so you'll just have to check out their website or take my word for it. They had many wood sculptures of various birds that looks insanely realistic. The museum traces the origins of the art form from old Native American duck decoys, through the various mutations of the wood duck decoys and the era of massive duck hunting into the years when duck hunting became regulated and duck stamps originated all the way up to the modern wood carvings, ending a large gallery with all kinds of competition winners from the '90s to present. After viewing the galleries we went out for a short hike around the grounds, didn't see much but the Canada Geese and their young and I also spotted a female Red-winged Blackbird sitting on a nest. After we'd hiked a bit and got good and warm, we packed up and headed back towards Frederick. 

We stopped and had lunch at the Easton Diner in Easton, MD. The exterior of the restuarant didn't look as dinery (if that's really a word) as I would have expected seeing other diners in the state, but the interior was classic diner with some modern hints here and there. They had two nice aquariums that looked like they were actually maintained. The portions were huge...I had cheese ravioli with Italian sausage and some chicken noodle soup (no, not at the same time) and Bonnie and Katie both got the flounder sandwich which was pretty much the whole fish sans head and tail. Bonnie also got the salad bar which apparently had a colossal selection as she came back with about anything you could ever imagine a salad bar having. It was all pretty good and the service was decent, I'd go back.

After lunch it was back over the Bay Bridge and into rush hour traffic getting back towards Frederick. We also got into some rain which made it more fun. After we got back to aunt Cindy's place we just sat around and relaxed. Bonnie and I had a piece of pie for dinner and the girls finished off the left over chicken nuggets. The girls and aunt Cindy played some Boggle and Bible Trivia and then we all headed to bed. All in all, a fairly laid back day.