Staycationing and Our Very Own Summer Day Camp

Once again, it's almost summertime, and we're really not sure how we'll spend our vacation time, or where (or even when!) we'll go away on our family vacation for this year. 
Last year I made a list of Staycationing Ideas for a Blog Cruise, and we didn't get to very many of the local sites that came to mind. I do like the idea of "staycationing" because the accommodations are already familiar and paid for; and so are many of the meals if we can eat at home. Spending some of our vacation time seeing sites close to home has the potential to save money, which might stretch our dollars for the away-from-home vacation a little further. The places from last year's list that we're most interested in for this year are probably Catoctin Mountain and the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal. Both are an hour or less away from home and have good walking and hiking trails. Catoctin Mountain also boasts a lake with a beach and a waterfall. We don't have a swimming pool again this year, so a few trips to the nearby lake seems like a good idea.     We have already started thinking about a good time to go to Camden Yards in Baltimore for an Orioles game. Turns out the Toronto Blue Jays will be visiting around Father's Day, so the hubster and I would like to go to one of those games. We're not sure if any of the kids would join us or not. There's also the possibility of going to a Washington Nationals game, and I'm pretty sure we'll catch a couple of Frederick Keys games through the summer, as their home field is a lot closer to us, and the tickets are considerably cheaper!
I want to visit the National Zoo in Washington DC sometime soon. The zoo recently acquired three new elephants for their herd, and the elephants come from the Calgary Zoo! Pretty neat connection! Something else that falls in the "Staycation" category will be the 2014 edition of Kamp KennadyAnne! I did Kamp KennadyAnne for the first time last year, when all three boys were away at Creation and I thought it would be fun to have sort of a day camp for Kennady at home. Kennady and I started talking about ideas for Kamp KennadyAnne 2014 and this is HER list of things she would like to do: -have her friend over for a camp-out in the backyard -go to Chick-Fil-A for milkshakes -go mini-golfing -go to the National Aquarium -go to a movie
All of those are very do-able! Actually the camp-out in the backyard might be the biggest challenge, depending on how many tents we still have and whether the boys are taking all of them to Creation or not. The National Aquarium in Baltimore was on my staycation list of things to do last year, and since it's something Kennady really wants to do, we will do our best to make it happen during her day camp week. Check out how long it's been since we last visited the National Aquarium! Kennady was just a little girl!

 Last year's Kamp KennadyAnne included watching movies together at home, and I'm pretty sure I'll do that with her again this year. Going out for dinner, or just for ice cream is certainly more affordable when it's just two or three of us instead of the whole family so we'll probably do that at least once.

How much Staycationing do you plan to do this summer? Leave a comment and let me know! Be sure to visit the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog (this link will be live on Wednesday, May 28th) to see other Crew members' "Summer Staycation Ideas". You can also visit the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog homepage to see lots of product reviews, and past blog cruise topics.

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