The Cuter McGowans

As per usual, it was raining while we visited Michigan. Luckily, Zara was prepared.

Magic House

Eh. Three story giant bean stalk? Who hasn't climbed one?

The Gateway Arch: Jefferson National Expansion Memorial

Zara & I spent a whole day visiting the museum under the arch (highly recommended and free), and the three of us rode to the top the following morning. Where we were stuck for about an hour. Causing Jo to miss that day's keynote. Where they announced she'd won a scholarship to be there. And invited her to stand up & wave to everyone. Gosh darn those rickety elevator / roller coaster / cable car / claustrophobia inducing barrels! Nice view, tho.

Zara's Whole Long Name

Udvar-Crazy

On the way to dropping Maryann off at Dulles (returning, sadly, to Australia), we had a small blast at U-H. SR-71 & P-38 in these shots.

Corn

This is the second corn of the year, here in sunny C'ville. As the saying goes, "in my tummy by the 4th of July."

Fourth of July 1820

While Frontier Culture Museum had special events for July 4th, instead we just toured around the museum as we normally would. Only something has happened to Zara: instead of appreciating just the various animals (especially the historically accurate cats), she's suddenly interested in asking the interpreters questions, figuring out how stuff works, and otherwise appreciating the affordances of our local open air living history museum.

Cold Noodles in Sesame Sauce

Zara really enjoys helping in the kitchen (licking the spoons). Here she contributes to our ever-improving cold noodles recipe: hint, garlic doesn't help this dish.