Since we're leaving on Friday to spend Christmas and New Year's in Washington with Greg's family, I thought it was about time I got around to posting about our summer vacation there.
It had been three years since the last time we'd been to Washington in the summer, and we'd almost forgotten how much there was to do there in warm weather. Such as horseback riding:
And trips to the beach:
(I believe that was Evan's first time at the Pacific Ocean.)
We went to the Hoh Rainforest in Olympic National Park, one of the few temperate rainforests in the world. It's full of giant old trees all covered in hanging moss, which, on a sunny day, is quite lovely. I've actually never been there on a rainy day, so I can't speak to that experience, but I'm sure it's neat then too.
Icidentally, the drive to the rainforest takes you through the small town of Forks, which is now well-known as the setting of the Twilight books and movies. It's amusing to see the Twilight mania in this little logging town -- every business with a sign out front welcomes Twilight fans to town, there is a store on the main street selling only Twilight merchandise, and we even saw some teenage girls posing in front of the "Welcome to Forks" sign as we drove into town.
Anyway. This photo is of one of the more memorable parts of the trail through the rainforest, and gives you a bit of an idea of the size of some of the trees.
Greg and I were able to take a couple of days to ourselves to go hiking and camping in the Olympics (thanks again to Greg's parents for watching the boys for us!). We hiked to Royal Basin, a lake that is only reached after climbing a seven-mile trail that rises over 2500 feet in elevation along the way. Needless to say, we were sort of useless in the movement department for a day or two after we got back. But that view is worth it, don't you think?
We also saw our first wild bear on that trip, although we didn't get any photos. We saw him only because he heard us coming and started crashing through the underbrush trying to run away from us, so even if we had gotten a photo it would have been of his rear end. So.
We went to Salt Creek, which is a very pretty beach and a great place to look at tide pools. We've been there many times as well, but it never fails to amaze us with its beautiful scenery and the interesting creatures you can find there. In addition to all of the tide pool animals we've seen there (such as sea stars, mussels, crabs, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, snails and fish) we've seen bald eagles, sea lions (or were they seals? I can never remember), sea otters and whales.
It's also just fun to play in the sand and water there:
We hiked out to the Devil's Punchbowl at Lake Crescent, along the Spruce Railroad Trail, a trail that actually used to be a railroad. We've done this hike many times in the past but it's a good one for kids (relatively short and flat), plus it's beautiful, so we keep going back again and again. Here's James on the bridge over the punchbowl:
And here's Evan along the shore of the lake during the hike:
In addition to all of these day trips we took, we also had a lot of fun just hanging out with Greg's family, playing games, watching movies, berry-picking, walking the dogs, building with Legos, eating fresh seafood, and just generally being on vacation.
Last night I finally got around to posting some of my photos on Flickr, so click here and take a look if you're interested. Those are maybe half of my photos from the trip, but it took about eleventy-zillion hours to upload and label them all, so I think that's all there will be. There are more photos of horses, hiking, the beach, the rainforest, and tide pools, among other things, so check it out.
We're headed back to Washington tomorrow morning, and can't wait to spend the holidays with Greg's family! And hopefully it won't take me quite as long to post photos from this trip once we're back home again.
17 December 2009
catching up: washington vacation
18 November 2009
catching up: moss island
There are not many exciting places to go or things to do in central New York, where I grew up, but one of the most reliably fun and interesting activities in the area is to spend some time on Moss Island. Moss Island is an island in the middle of the Erie Canal in Little Falls, NY, and it's got some really unusual geological formations, which make it a popular spot for hiking and rock climbing.
We've been to Moss Island a few times before, but this summer was the first time I have remembered to bring the camera there. I didn't get to explore the rocks as much as I might have liked, since we had four kids with us (my boys, my niece and my nephew), so the photos are a little limited in terms of the scope and variation of the features of the island, but it was still a nice afternoon, and cute kids make up for the lack of really stunning photos, right?
The island is formed by a lock in the Erie Canal. To get there, you pass by (or through) a historic lock:
Here's a glimpse of the modern lock. Moss Island is under all of those trees to the right. To access the island you have to walk across the lock, which is pretty cool. No photos, though, sorry.
Once you're on the island, there are trails through the woods, and lots of places to hike and climb around on the rocks:
James, with Greg's help, did a little more advanced climbing:
Here's an example of some of the cool geological features you can find on the island. If memory serves, everything was carved by glaciers.
Poor toddling baby Will couldn't keep up with the big kids, who were all eager to explore, and even take a break for a photo op once in a while:
Because there's so much variation on the island, it's the kind of place you can visit again and again and still have fun and see new things. We're looking forward to returning as our kids get older, when we'll be able to do some more adventurous climbing. Until then, it's a nice place to walk and play.
15 September 2009
farm visits
We've had three opportunities to visit our CSA farm this year, and it's always a fun experience. We were there over the weekend, and once in June. I forgot to bring my camera this time, but I never posted the photos from June, so I'm still able to share all of our farm love.
One of the great things about the farm is that they really encourage kids to get involved, so our kids have been able to help pick beans (both green and purple, which I'd never seen before, and sadly have no photos of), tomatoes (a literal rainbow of colors), potatoes (both red and blue), and peas:
We picked from pea plants taller than my first-born:
...who is a very adorable helper, by the way:
The farm is located in the same neighborhood as a buffalo farm, which we took a walk to visit. The buffalo were very shy of the large, noisy group of children who came to gawk at them, so I didn't get any really good photos, but a decent one:
The farm has two dogs in residence, both of whom my children adore. This is Juno, who earns her keep by killing woodchucks, and is skeptical of children:
The farm is a lovely place to walk around and explore:
You might find any number of bugs if you look hard enough at the ground:
Or you may find a gigantic dandelion fluff:
Be careful, though -- your shoes will most likely get very wet and muddy during a day at the farm, especially if it's rained nearly every day of the summer:
All in all it's a pretty beautiful place to be:
Each time we've been to the farm we've been able to have lunch with the farmers and their apprentices, as well as with other CSA members. The farmers always put together a delicious salad consisting of greens and vegetables taken out of the ground that morning.
It has really been a wonderful experience for us, getting so close to our food and the people who grow it. The kids complain a little about being put to work, but then I watch them both dig into farm-fresh salads with enthusiasm, sometimes asking for seconds, and I hope years from now they will remember these visits fondly.
02 July 2009
nature's bounty
We've been getting vegetables from our CSA for six weeks now. It has been a really interesting experience. You sign up months ahead of time and agree to pay a certain amount for months of fresh, seasonal, organic produce, but you never know, beyond a general understanding of what's in season at any given time, exactly what you'll be getting or how much.
We're splitting our share of produce with a friend of mine, so the amount we're getting is pretty manageable, most of the time, and sometimes not enough (for example, splitting an average-sized bunch of asparagus in half, where one half goes to a solo person and the other half goes to my family of four often leaves us wanting more). Up to this point, the spring and early summer have been heavy with leafy green vegetables. I have to tell you, we are eating more leafy green vegetables than ever before, including some things we've never seen or heard of. At first it was a little intimidating and overwhelming, but now that I've gotten used to this abundance of green, I'm wondering what I'll do when it's over for the season.
We've gotten plenty of common produce items: asparagus, lettuce, kale, Swiss chard, spinach, peas in pods, rhubarb, thyme, chives, onions, dill, carrots, radishes. But we've gotten some more unusual items as well. The photo above is of one of the first salads I made this year, created entirely with our farm vegetables. It features two kinds of lettuce, spinach, edible weeds (such as purslane, chick weed and lambsquarter -- I still am not sure what any of those look or taste like, even after eating them), radishes, and chive blossoms. Did you know chive blossoms are edible? They taste very much like concentrated, intense chive flavor, and, much like a strong red onion, will leave a taste in your mouth for hours after eating.
Other new-to-us foods that we've received include watercress, mizuna, bok choi, Chinese cabbage, parsnips, tarragon, pea greens (the leaves from pea plants), garlic scapes, garlic greens, radicchio, senposai, and arugula. Chances are, if you've never heard of something on that list, it's probably a leafy green vegetable.
It's exciting, learning what to do with all these new foods. I'm glad, too, that my kids are getting used to eating all manner of green and/or unusual things in all kinds of dishes, and that, for the most part, they do so willingly. And the fact that everything we're eating from the farm is organic is just a bonus.
As soon as I get some photos uploaded, you'll get to hear about our second trip to the farm, where we got to learn more about where the food on our plates is coming from.
22 May 2009
friday photos: lilac festival edition
I've been posting a lot of photos on Facebook lately, which made me forget that I haven't been posting any here on the blog. Some of these photos will be familiar to any of you who I'm friends with on Facebook, but shockingly, not everyone I know is on Facebook, so I'm posting them here too, along with a few new photos.
Now that the weather has finally gotten nice, we're spending a lot of time outdoors. Last week Rochester held its annual Lilac Festival. Unfortunately we were only able to go twice, but we managed to see a lot of flowers, take a lot of photos, go on some rides, see a band, and eat too much unhealthy food. Lots of fun, as always.
My boys are not very cooperative when it comes to making them pose nicely in front of flowers and trees -- you'll see it's nearly impossible for them to close their mouths or just plain smile -- but I still managed to get some nice shots of them. As always these days, there are a few in purple-tinted Technicolor.
Happy weekend, everyone!
04 May 2009
weekend photos
On Saturday we took a trip out to visit the farm that will be growing most of our vegetables for the next 6 months. A couple of months ago we signed up for a CSA -- Community Supported Agriculture, which means that we buy a share of a farm and then get a portion of everything that's grown there during the year. We're excited about knowing exactly where so much of our food will be coming from (bonus: the farm is organic), and it was nice to meet the people who will be growing it. On our visit on Saturday we toured the farm, did some hiking, and shared a potluck meal with other CSA members. It was a gorgeous day, and lots of fun, and tired our children right out.
We started right out with a hike through the fields and woods around the edges of the farm's property. James brought his binoculars for a little bird-watching:
Evan, whose peaceful car-nap was interrupted by our arrival at the farm, was grumpy about having to hike as soon as he woke up:
James did some careful investigating of the ground, looking at bugs and flowers and gopher holes:
Evan perked up eventually. How could anyone be grumpy in the midst of sunny springtime woods, surrounded by hundreds of blooming trilliums?
After our hike we checked out the greenhouses where some of the lettuce we'll be eating later this month is already growing:
Evan enjoyed running through the greenhouse aisles:
We'll have the opportunity to go back to the farm a few times this summer. Part of our membership actually requires working there a couple of times, so I'm sure there will be more farm photos to come throughout the year.
17 April 2009
friday photos: corbett's glen edition
We recently learned about a local park we'd never been to or even heard of. It's called Corbett's Glen and it's a really unusual little park, full of hills and trails, with a stream running through it, bounded on one side by a railroad track (I think three trains came by in the couple of hours we were there) and almost completely surrounded by the suburbs, to the point that you're occasionally walking alongside people's backyards. There are even a couple of houses entirely within the glen. It has a lot of interesting features, and while we were there last weekend I managed to take a lot of photos.
One of the coolest things about the glen is that one of the entrances to the park takes you through a stone tunnel, under the railroad bridge and beside the stream:
And there's a little waterfall on the other side of the tunnel:
If you ask James and Evan, one of the best possible things to do in this park, or any park really, is to throw rocks in the water.
We found a strange vine structure, which will probably be even cooler looking once we get some green around here:
We climbed a huge hill overlooking the stream. For a city that's so flat, it was surprising to find a large, steep hill perched over the water:
There's some pretty cool terrain in the middle of the park. The path takes you along a sharp dip between two hills:
And there's a long section of the path that splits between the ground, and a long narrow ridge that rises maybe six to eight feet or so above the path:
It's not fully spring yet -- things were still mostly brown -- but we did see some promising signs:
And some cheerful graffiti:
Once we had hiked from one end of the park to the other we stopped for a rest and some playing and goofing around:
And on our way back, along a different, more remote trail, we saw a large, abandoned, rusted machine of some kind. I love finding random things in the woods:
27 March 2009
friday photos: first hike of the year edition
Last weekend was just nice enough for us to head out to a local park for the first hike of spring. Things are not very green yet, but the snow is gone and it's warm enough to leave the winter coats at home, so we're happy. We're hoping to get in more hiking and camping this year than last (Last year: no camping at all, and hiking maybe twice? Pathetic.), so we're getting the kids used to trekking as soon as we can. Some photos:
Wide open space to run around in!
James goofing around on a tiny bridge. Curiously, the bed of this little stream was literally covered in seashells.
Evan's short little legs got some assistance from time to time. He seemed to think that if he couldn't see the camera, he couldn't be photographed.
Out in the woods along one of the trails is an old rusted-out car. Our camera doesn't quite capture the robin's-egg blue of what's left of its paint.
This is what happens when I ask for a nice photo of my boys in front of the pond:
The forecast for this weekend is for more nice weather, so we're hoping to get out hiking again. Happy weekend, everyone!
