Visit to Robin's

Robin (Sidesaddle Quest) invited me to stay with her while I was on my trip and she had enticed me by telling me I could go for a ride on the fabulous Owen! After arriving and meeting her sister & mother, we decided we had just enough time to go for a ride before dinner. So off we went for a tour.

The woods around Virginia & Maryland are so different from our dense forests at home. As we rode, Robin told me about the history of the farm and her family. I of course, opted to do the trail ride aside, why not?

Before untacking, Robin and I had some fun with Owen. She taught me how to do a piaffe & passage on him. What an incredible feeling! Such a treat to ride a horse like him. The next morning, we got up and went into Baltimore to see the National Aquarium. Definitely something you should see if you go to Baltimore. It was pretty amazing. I took a ton of photos but here are a few of the best ones (or I'll be here uploading pics all day! haha) The Aquarium is right on the waterfront in the inner harbor of Baltimore. The submarine out front is really interesting too.

There was also an old ship in the harbor that you could do tours of.

Inside the aquarium there is so much to see.

Inside you work your way up to the top of the building and then you get to this long spiral walkway that takes you down through this enormous tank. As you go lower the types of fish change and there are even some pretty good sized sharks. It was neat to see the divers in the tank feeding the fish. (not in the shark tank of course! lol)

This is an interesting photo of what baltimore used to look like and what it looks like now.

Lots has changed! As we enjoyed our lunch, we watched the little "dragon boats" out in the water. Unfortunately Robin didn't think much of my idea to rent one and paddle around the water lol. I think it's an interesting juxtaposition seeing those dragons touring around out in front of the old submarine.

After touring the aquarium and having lunch, we went back to Robin's farm. We took the scenic route home and saw some huge thoroughbred farms & lots of neat old houses along the way. We stopped at a beautiful old church where Robin was married. Her family has a long history in the area.

We had a bit of time to relax and then we had to turn back around and drive to the Baltimore Airport to pick up my friend Lee who was joining us for the ISSO Clinic weekend. Poor Lee! Her flight had come in early and she had arrived at a different terminal that we had expected, so we couldn't find her. We wandered around the airport for a good hour or so looking for her. Finally we found her and heard how the entire trip down had been a bit of an adventure. (Note to self, do not EVER fly though Toronto Airport or on Air Canada again....). For dinner we stopped at a neat old pub and chatted about sidesaddles and horses for at least a few hours. What could be better? Good company, good food and lots of good conversation!