Celebrating Grandma Dorothy's 90th birthday - weekend of September 10th

The weekend after Labor Day we traveled down to the Chesapeake Bay area in Maryland to visit Grandma Dorothy.  We left Friday evening looking forward to a fun weekend with family.  The weekend was to celebrate Dorothy's 90th birthday.  Dorothy is Charlie's grandmother from his dad's side - at 90, she is still active and lives in her house in St. Michael's, MD.  She didn't seem to admit it was actually her 90th - she kept saying "that's what they tell me" :)

The weekend was a great time catching up with lots of family - Charlie's parents came up from Cincinnati with Chuck ("Grumpa"), Charlie's grandfather (paternal).  Also visiting were Charlie's Aunt Lynn, Uncle Jerry and their kids - Kris, Dana and Kai.  "Kids" is a relative term - Kris, Dana and Kai all have children of their own these days, though this weekend trip was too far and too quick for their families to make the trip as well.  Also there was Charlie's cousin's Hal and Bunny (and her husband Chris), as well as two of Dorothy's friends from St. Michael's.

Saturday during the day we met Aunt Lynn and Uncle Jerry and Kris, Dana and Kai for lunch at the Crab Claw which is a cute restaurant in downtown St. Michael's right on the water that specializes obviously in crab and other shell-fish.  Charlie stayed away from the shell-fish and just had a burger but Katie tried the crab-cakes.  Afterwards we went back to the rental house to take naps and watch college football.

Saturday evening, the family had planned a very nice dinner at the Robert Morris Inn in Oxford, Maryland where Dorothy and Granddad Dave spent a night of their honey-moon some 45 years ago.  The restaurant was a couple of town over from St. Michael's and separated by the bay, so the best way to get there is by ferry.  Charlie and I had never been on a ferry before so we got a kick out of driving our car on the ferry and got out of the car to take pictures of course.

The dinner was lovely with many stories from family members and toasts to Dorothy who has accomplished so many amazing things and is truly an inspiration to all of us to enjoy all life has to offer.  

After dinner, we all went back to Grandma Dorothy's house to watch the Michigan-Notre Dame game, which was quite a nail-biter.  Charlie and Tom were cheering for Michigan and Kai is a Notre Dame fan, so we had both sides represented.  Michigan pulled off the win which made Charlie and Tom very happy.

On Sunday, Leslie and Katie hit the shoppes in St. Michael's while Charlie, Grumpa and Tom took a leisurely stroll and back to the house for football and naps.  The St. Michael's area is such a beautiful part of the country and we had a great weekend relaxing and catching up with family.  Griffey really enjoyed coming along too and exploring the area.