The Great Romanov Egg Hunt: Day 1: Four States and High, Low, Buffalo

Wednesday, June 11, 2025

A couple of years ago, Danny introduced a social game to our family called "high, low, buffalo". Each person in turn talks about his or her day using the the topics of "high" (the best part or best experience of the day), "low" (what was the worst part of the day), and "buffalo" (what surprised you today). It's a great way to decompress and recap the day at the dinner table. We did that at dinner tonight, but I'll share the outcome a bit later.

We were off to a little bit of a late start this morning, but all worked out in the end. We made it through Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey today. Traffic was horrible for most of the trip, but we made it this far without any issues. Regarding that, the "low" today was running over a "road gator" between Vriginia and Maryland this moring. All was fine, but it scared all of us.

Today's "high" of course was seeing two magnificent eggs at The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. The Gatchina Palace Egg is SO detailed on the inside and quite simplistic on the outside. The Rose Trellis Egg is also very ornate on the outside; not sure what it looks like inside.

Two Fabrage Eggs at the Walter Museum in Baltimore, MD.

Carys couldn't get any closer to these eggs if she tried.

Here's a better look at the Gatchina Palace egg. I can't get over the detail in the tiny castle in this egg!

Eggs aren't the only things the Fabrage designers made. Here is another jewel-encrusted item from the studios. I swear I have seen the two birds in Richmond when I was a little kid. There was an extensive exhibit that included several Fabrage items in it and I think these birds may have been one of those items.

The day was FILLED with "buffalos". The first one was a small glimpse of Cathredral Street in Baltimore. It was a little slice of Paris right here on our back yard! Carys was thrilled to sse this.

This looked so much like the streets and cathredrals in Paris.

This lion statue was in a courtyard that reminded us of the park we ate lunch in near the Louvre.

The second "buffalo" of the day was that the Walter Museum is actually beyond the back yard of the Garrett Jacobs Mansion. The back of the museum is the actual Mansion. Beautiful house with lots of art.

The view from the foyer of the Garrett Jacobs mansion.

A section of the wall in the staircase. The whole entry way is covered in this style.

Sky light in the mansion made by Tiffany and Company.

The last "buffalo" of the day was a result of an unscheduled side quest. Something that Carys has wanted to do for a while now is see Edgar Allan Poe's final resting place. A quick Google Maps search revealed that his tombstone was only a seven minute drive from the Walter museum, so off we went. The "buffalo" wasn't the actual headstone or memorial stone. It was the cemetary itself! The Westminster Hall is a beautiful old brick building in the middle of a city block. The chruch is built over and around the cemetary plots. People are buried all over the place: under the church, beside the church, in the walkway, even under the porch. Everywhere you turned in that small space was a tomb or burial plot! These pictures don't do it justice.

There is a drainage trench and walkway that share the same space BETWEEN two above ground vaults!