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.
20 December 2008
hahaha, did i say hiatus?
...because the Fates had other plans for us. Or maybe I should say Northwest Airlines had other plans. Alternate post title: air travel sucks, especially when there's no travel involved.
Today finds me at home with two wide-open days to fill, so I thought I'd use my new-found wealth of free time to blog about how I got all this extra time. Any of you who follow me on Twitter or Facebook may have read my disgruntled updates yesterday, so now you can get the full story. I'll try to keep it brief, but no promises, because I might get ranty. Read the whole saga below the fold:
Friday, Dec. 19
3:30am: Alarm clock jolts us out of sleep
3:55am: Taxi arrives to take us to the airport
4:05am: Standing in line at Northwest check-in counter
4:20am: NW employees begin to arrive
4:30am: Check-in counter opens and we proceed to check in and check 3 large suitcases
5:00am: Checked in and through security, waiting at the gate
5:30am: Boarding begins for 6am flight to Detroit
6:00am: Airplane backs out of the gate to prepare for flight
Around this time, our pilot makes an announcement: the weather in Detroit isn't looking so good, and we may have to reroute to either Pittsburgh or Minneapolis. We cross our fingers for Minneapolis, since that's our layover between Detroit and Seattle. They are adding extra fuel to the plane in case we are rerouted.
5-10 minutes later, our pilot makes another announcement: the extra fuel has pushed our airplane over the weight limit and they are looking for nine volunteers to get off the plane. No one moves. Plane returns to the gate.
5 or so minutes later, flight crew makes an announcement: NW has another plane headed directly to Minneapolis, and anyone who gets off our plane can be rebooked on the Minneapolis flight. Greg goes to the front of the plane to speak to the NW representative.
Greg returns to me and the kids and says we can get off and go straight to Minneapolis on another flight instead of going through Detroit. We exit the plane with 5 other passengers who have the same plan.
7:00am: We are told at the ticket counter that the NW flight to Minneapolis that was used to lure us off the plane has no extra seats. We are issued travel vouchers and meal vouchers and rebooked on a 12:15pm flight to Detroit.
7:30am: Muffins, bagels and coffee at Dunkin' Donuts, courtesy of NW meal vouchers.
8:30am - 11am: We set up camp next to the children's play area. Kids run and jump and play while Greg and I amuse ourselves with the laptop and the Nintendo DS.
11am-ish: Head back to gate to check status of our new flight. Flight is delayed. Snow has started falling in earnest.
12pm-ish: Find a quiet, unoccupied gate to settle in and wait for flight status updates.
1pm-ish: Lunch at Subway courtesy of NW meal vouchers.
2pm - 5pm: Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. Repeated flight delays. We are told that a flight headed to Rochester was rerouted to Syracuse, and our flight is dependent on that plane getting to Rochester from Syracuse. We also learn during this time period that our luggage has arrived in Seattle. Thankfully our toothbrushes are in our carry-on bags.
5:00pm: Another Detroit flight begins boarding. There are extra seats on this flight but the line of standby passengers is too long for us to get on board. At this point our 12:15pm flight is expected to leave at 7pm.
5:30pm: Detroit flight that has just boarded is now deboarding. I mention this because for the second time in one day, a NW flight is over the weight limit and passengers are asked to leave. This time, however, all passengers must exit the plane because one of the random passengers who was asked to get off refused and argued, and caused this flight to miss its window of opportunity to take off.
6:00pm: The same flight to Detroit begins reboarding.
6:30pm: The flight to Detroit is boarded, but by this time, so many passengers have missed their connecting flights and rebooked new flights for other days that there are 8 available seats.
Around this time, the flight crew is trying to determine how many more people they can take while staying within the weight limits. A pilot approaches us and asks if we are headed to Detroit; when we say yes he tells us he'd like to get us on the plane because our children would help keep the plane under the weight limit.
Then this pilot disappears and is never seen again.
The NW agent at the check-in counter begins letting standby passengers onto the flight. Greg inquires at the counter and we are told we can't get on this flight. The woman tells us that there is some feature of their computer system that won't allow her to change us to this flight, despite the fact that it's going to our destination and there are seats available, because we are still booked on the 12:15pm flight.
7:00pm: Flight to Detroit that we were not allowed to change to takes off. We are told that the plane we are waiting for from Syracuse is on its way and is expected to arrive at 7:30pm. We buy snacks to wait, still using vouchers. At least they were generous about that.
7:30pm: NW agent tells us that the plane from Syracuse is no longer listed as in the air, and our flight time has been moved back to 8:30pm. The kids are starting to get stir-crazy and continually ask when we're getting on the plane to go see Grandma and Papa.
8:00pm: At this point there are eight people left waiting: the four of us, a college student, and a couple with a 17-month old baby. We are all trying to get to Detroit to transfer on to other locations. I send NW a complaint through their website, detailing our saga.
8:30pm: We are informed that the plane we've been waiting for for over 8 hours has had a mechanical issue and our flight is canceled. We are all in tears of exhaustion, frustration and disappointment by this point.
9:00pm: We are rebooked for a Monday morning flight, 6am. We are told that there are no flights available on Saturday, and there is only one flight on Sunday, but it is already overbooked by 15 people, and there is another winter storm due on Sunday anyway. We are given additional travel vouchers. Evan asks if we're getting on the airplane now and I laugh and cry at the same time.
9:30pm: A friend picks us up at the airport to take us home.
10:00pm: We watch A Muppet Family Christmas while I make pasta for my starving children, who are too tired to eat more than a few bites despite how hungry they have been for the last couple of hours.
10:45pm: My children fall asleep, one on the couch and the other on the floor, and I carry them to bed.
11:00pm: Greg phones NW's Baggage Services to find out what is going to happen to our luggage. The employee he speaks with at first argues that our luggage can't be in Seattle, because it should have been taken off the flight when we got off the plane, despite the fact that more than one NW agent told us over the course of the day that our luggage was in Seattle. Then the customer service rep tells Greg that he will have to return to our airport to file a claim with the NW baggage office there. Greg, bless his little heart, argues with the woman for 5 minutes before she relents and checks the damn computer to find that yes, our bags are in Seattle and we can pick them up when we arrive there. Which will hopefully be on Monday.
Today we woke up late to a beautiful day, sunny, with fluffy white snow everywhere. We were dismayed to remember that our kids' boots and snow clothes are in our luggage, but luckily I found some slightly outgrown and some slightly too big items in the basement that will suffice for going sledding today. We have enough canned and frozen food to save us from having to go grocery shopping. We are planning to enjoy our extra two days of vacation even if we're not where we wish we were. We're just hoping that the snow that's expected on Sunday both here and in Seattle will be over by Monday morning so we can just get to our family for Christmas, damn it.
If you've made it to the end of this, thanks for indulging my self-pitying rant. I would advise you to steer clear of Northwest Airlines, but honestly, I don't trust that the others are that much better. The quality of our experiences with air travel has been steadily worsening over the last few years, regardless of which airline we're on. And they don't have to care, because we don't really have any choice.
Sigh. Hope everyone out there is having a better time than we are. And hopefully I won't have anything to blog about any time soon.
04 December 2008
bankrupting ourselves with holiday travel
Okay, I mentioned in my last post that I wasn't going to complain about airfare prices, among other things, but this is less of a complaining post and more of a startled observation. With math.
Get Rich Slowly linked to an interesting site yesterday: Cost To Drive. You put in your starting point, destination, and what type of car you're driving, and it calculates your estimated fuel costs. The site finds the lowest prices for gas along the way, so it's really more of a minimum cost, but it's still fun to play with.
So this morning, as I was playing with the site, I dusted off the seldom-used math part of my brain and did some additional calculations. Because the site uses the lowest prices, I rounded up (waaaay up) to reflect potential fluctuations and the fact that one might not always find the lowest-priced gas around. I learned that, even with my rounding, our plane tickets for Christmas break cost more than five times the price of fuel for a drive across the country and back.
Then I figured that if we were to drive from New York to Washington, even if we were to stay in decent hotels and eat out, we could easily do the round trip for less than half of the price of our plane tickets. By driving, we save ourselves at least 4 days of travel (assuming that somehow we'd be able to drive pretty much non-stop), which means that we are spending at least $250 a day for those four extra days with Greg's family. Ouch. Not that they're not worth that, of course, but still. Ouch.
20 March 2008
more food talk, and a vacation
First order of business: Several people asked how the Guinness Corned Beef turned out, and I can happily recommend it, with the caveat that you make sure to choose a beer you really like, because it will rather taste like beer. But not overwhelmingly so -- our kids ate it with no complaint. I served it with this Irish Champ (I tried to convince the kiddos that the green onions were delicious Irish confetti, to no avail) and cooked up some carrots and cabbage with the beef, and it was most delicious with the beefy-beery sauce spooned over everything. A pretty satisfactory St. Patrick's day dinner, overall.
Second: While I'm on the subject of food, I have to also enthusiastically recommend these homemade granola bars. I lightened up on the brown sugar and honey, and used a mixture of craisins and mini chocolate chips in place of the raisins, and they're maybe my favorite snack ever.
Third: I'm leaving tonight for a visit with my sister and her family, just as Greg is getting over an illness and James is coming down with one. I almost feel bad about leaving them in their various states of ill health, but then I ask Evan to put some books away and he suddenly loses all the bones in his legs and the screaming starts and I remember that OH MY GOD am I ready for a vacation. Yes, my vacation will be with small children, but they are not my small children, and I'm not the person primarily responsible for them. So I'm loading up my mp3 player with good music (music with swear words, even!) and happily anticipating all the quiet time I'll have to read in the airport and on the plane, and I don't feel that badly anymore.
There's one thing I'm sorry about missing this weekend. Not anything Easter-related, oh no. Due to Greg's competent electronic repair skills, we recently acquired an XBox 360, and there is a tentative plan to purchase Rock Band this weekend. Now there's something I'll be glad to come home to. Oh, I suspect I'll miss my boys after a couple of days, and may even want to see them more than I'll want to be playing Rock Band, but at the moment I'm really looking forward to loving them from a distance.
07 January 2008
notes from vacation
Oh, how I wish life could always be a vacation. Sleeping late, no housework, lots of video games, eating out, and of course, spending lots of time with family and friends who you don't see nearly often enough.
Some highlights, in no particular order:
Rock Band: I would estimate that we spent about 34 zillion hours playing Rock Band. I became an accomplished drummer, Greg rocked out on the bass, and James sang lead vocals, quickly becoming an expert on a couple of Ramones songs, which he made us play at least 75 times a day.
Horses: James and Evan both got to ride one of Grandma Kathy's horses, as well as visit with all of the horses (and cows, and a donkey) out at the farm. It was Evan's first time riding, and he did pretty well. He was incredibly excited until he realized he had to wear a helmet, so most of his ride was spent trying to take his helmet off.
Christmas: I don't know why I didn't put this first. We had a really nice Christmas with Greg's family. It's so nice that all of his siblings are able to come spend Christmas at their parents' house -- it's always full and busy, the way Christmas should be. I always miss my own family, of course, but it helps a bit to be part of another family.
The boys were showered in gifts, and loved each and every one. The favorites?
1) Nintendo DS: Greg's brother handed his down to us, and gave us a few games. It would be a huge understatement to say we all totally love it. It's getting a lot of use so far. James asked for one for Christmas, and I kind of didn't want one, because I knew we would all want to use it a lot, but I'm not really complaining.
2) Mythical beasts: Greg's brother also got the boys a books and game about mythical creatures, which came with little figures of the creatures, and they are so into them. They spent a lot of time over vacation telling people about Chupacabra (imagine a two-year-old saying that word -- so cute) and now that we're home they've been playing with them a lot. This morning they were fighting over the Hydra -- something I never expected my children to fight over.
Movies: We saw many movies over the course of two weeks. I was psyched to get the movie Labyrinth as a gift, and doubly pleased to see how well it holds up after twenty years. I saw a few movies I would never have watched if it weren't for Greg (namely, Transformers -- the new one, though we now own both movies -- and Alien vs. Predator: Requiem) and I can honestly say I did not hate either of them. Who woulda thought. We also saw King Kong again (the Peter Jackson version), which I love, and which made me cry a little. Again.
The best movie we saw would have to be The Maze, a rare 3-D mystery/suspense movie from 1953, which we did not watch in 3-D, but which we enjoyed anyway. It's a pretty conventional film -- a little too slow, even -- until the end. The end is the real reason to watch this movie. It turns the film from something unremarkable into one of the greatest so-bad-it's-good movies I've ever seen.
New Year's: We went to a fabulous New Year's party at the home of one of Greg's brother's friends, without children, and we dressed up in silly costumes, played hours and hours of Rock Band, relaxed in a hot tub, played some pool, played a little Mario Kart, and had our fortunes told by a mysterious gypsy woman. We finally crawled into bed at 7am, totally satisfied. Oh, and I also took part in the traditional Norwegian custom of eating pickled herring for good luck in the new year. Greg's family loves pickled herring, and they make me eat some every year. The best I can say is that it hasn't killed me. Yet.
Evan boycotted pants during this vacation. He refuses to wear "wiggly" pants. We have yet to figure out what makes pants wiggly, but it seems to be a fairly common problem, since every pair of pants Evan owns is now considered wiggly.
And of course, it was so nice to see Greg's family again. Since we couldn't make it out to visit over the summer, we hadn't seen them in a year, which is really way too long. It was a lot of fun getting to hang out with all of them again.
I'm sure I'm forgetting some things, but that's a brief rundown. Pictures will be posted eventually. And now that we're home, (semi) regular blogging will resume.
12 October 2007
friday photos
Greg and I spent last weekend relaxing, child-free, with friends on Nantucket. We had a great time, though the weather was not the best we could have hoped for:
But the thick fog, brisk wind and 60-degree temperature didn't stop Greg from swimming:
But Mother Nature redeemed herself for a day of bad weather by giving us this sunset the following night:
04 October 2007
thursday photos
I'm posting photos a day early this week because I probably won't be able to post tomorrow. (Next week's photos may tell you why!)
We spent last weekend with my mom and my sister, and had some fall fun. We bought a million apples at Fly Creek Cider Mill, where we got the unexpected bonus of being able to feed ducks and turkeys as well. You may not know that I really enjoy birds (looking at them, that is; getting too close kind of frightens me) and there's something I really love about turkeys. I mean, look at this guy:
They also had a playground there, so after a scrumptious lunch, we let the boys play for a while. They had a little racetrack for ride-on toys that was situated on a slight hill. When you're two, though, even little hills are challenging, so Evan got a little help from his big brother:
We headed into nearby Cooperstown, and it just happened to be the weekend of Pumpkinfest, where farmers from all around bring their biggest, fattest pumpkins for competition. I saw a special about this festival on PBS a few weeks ago, so I was excited to see it in person. Y'all, when I say big, fat pumpkins, I mean big and fat:
Unfortunately, we missed the lake race, when they hollow out the enormous pumpkins and ride inside of them (really!), but we did see plenty of amazing pumpkins. While we were looking around we heard one weigh in at over 1300 pounds. 1300 pounds of pumpkin! They actually have to life them with a crane to weigh them. And look how many there were:
On Sunday we took my sister to the bus/train station, and while we were waiting for her delayed bus, we took a look around at some old trains they have displayed outside:
Apples and pumpkins and turkeys... it was a perfect fall weekend.
28 September 2007
friday photos
Last weekend we went camping with a group of friends at Watkins Glen State Park. We had a lot of fun, and I have a LOT of photos. It's been tough narrowing down which ones to post, because the hike at Watkins Glen is a phenomenally beautiful climb up a gorge, following a series of waterfalls, along picturesque stone pathways and bridges.
Here's a look down the gorge after climbing lots and lots of steps:
James in front of one of several stone tunnels we passed through on the climb:
Look closely and you'll see a wooden railing beneath this waterfall -- the path goes behind the waterfall, but unfortunately my camera couldn't take a decent picture of people posing behind the waterfall, or of the gorge from behind the waterfall, so I had to content myself with a side view:
Here's Evan enjoying a banana chip at the top of the trail, where it blissfully levels out:
Sunlight shining into the gorge:
It was a really nice trip. The only disappointments that I can recall now are that we didn't get to explore the town as much as I would have liked, and James was frustrated that no one knew any good ghost stories to tell around the campfire. But if those were the worst parts, then that makes this a pretty good weekend away.
20 August 2007
okay, FINE.
I had no idea there would be so much demand for pirate photos. I don't even have any very good ones -- Greg and I made pretty mediocre pirates, and we are (or at least I am) incredibly unphotogenic. But you asked for it.
I feel the need to explain that in my attempt for authenticity, my hair looked like that on purpose. I figured that with all the humidity on the open sea, and lack of conditioner or anti-frizz hair products, a pirate lass would have pretty unkempt hair. Don't ask me to explain Greg, though:
And as long as I'm posting photos, I've got some from the weekend as well. We spent the weekend at a cabin in the Adirondacks with friends, and did a little dressing up there too.
Exhibit A: Heidi and friends from high school went a little crazy with a box of hats found in a closet:
Exhibit B: Greg, who forgot to bring warm clothes even though we were camping, had to rummage through the closets as well, and made do with the warmest items he found. He made quite the fashion statement:
More impressive than either of us, though, was Cooper, the chihuahua who had more clothes for the weekend than I did. Here are a couple of my favorites:
And finally, a normal photo of Greg and me (before Andrea dropped her lunch in Greg's lap) in front of Snowbird Lake, where we spent time swimming and boating and generally relaxing, when we weren't experimenting with fashion:
Oh, how I wish every weekend could involve dressing up ridiculously with old friends in beautiful remote locations, but unfortunately, we must return to real life eventually.
14 August 2007
weekend wrap-up
If I was expecting our weekend away from the kids to be restful, I must have forgotten what it's like to spend time with our friends. We spent the weekend in Alexandria Bay for a wedding, and coincidentally, it was Pirate Days in Alex Bay as well. So in addition to seeing friends we haven't seen in 4 or 5 years, celebrating the marriage of two people we love, lake and river swimming, soaking in the hot tub, crazy dancing, eating tons of delicious food, and stargazing (and spotting a few meteors) at a giant bonfire, we also had the opportunity to dress up as pirates for a night out on the town. That includes the bride and groom. There was much merriment and revelry, and perhaps a little mischief and mayhem. Unfortunately the photos of me as a pirate wench are not terribly flattering, so they will not be making an appearance on the blog.
We had a ton of fun, but I got even less sleep than I normally do and that's really saying something. At least I got to sleep through the night, though -- no midnight crying, bedwetting, falling out of bed, or little bodies crawling into our bed. I can't wait until the day when those things are not regular features of my life. Even with the lack of sleep, it was one of the better weekends I've had in a long time.
27 July 2007
friday photos
After several nights of staying up way too late, I have finished reading Harry Potter, all seven books in a row, from beginning to end. Lots of crying, of course, but overall very satisfying. Now that that's over, I can return to the real world and start blogging again.
Last Friday, before I got into full-swing Potter-mania, I met up with my friend Jessica and her family in Ithaca for the day. James got to play all day with his old friend K (Jessica's 7-yea-old daughter) and we all got to do some sight-seeing and relaxing. We had a lot of fun. It was so good to see you, Jessica!
We went to Taughannock Falls to hike and play:
One of few recent photos of myself that I've liked -- it helps that the world's cutest toddler is perched on my shoulders, of course:
Jessica's family, my boys and me at the falls:
And Evan, who won't actually get into a pool, but feels that he needs goggles to look into the water from a distance:
And now that Harry is through, I have to get serious about packing, so I'm not sure how soon or often I'll be back to the blog in the next couple of weeks.
03 July 2007
friday tuesday photos
We interrupt your regularly scheduled blog-reading to bring you a special Tuesday photo post! Photos are on Tuesday this week because 1) I missed Friday photos last week and 2) I'll probably miss them again this week since I'll be out of town.
I managed to cross two more items off my 101 Things list (I still haven't decided on the last two things, by the way, but thank you all for your suggestions): 1) I hand-picked strawberries, made them into jam, and canned a dozen jars of jam, and it's the most delicious jam I've ever tasted, and no, I'm not biased at all. Yes, I am aware that you can buy jam in the store, and yes, I'm aware of what century we're in. I think we all know by now that if a complete stranger were to judge me based solely on my hobbies, they would conclude that I'm at least 70 years old. I know. But making jam is fun! And really, really delicious.
Anyway, moving on. The second item I crossed off my list this weekend was a visit to Chimney Bluffs State Park, and that, my friends, is what you will now see photos of.
The park is named for the crazy bluffs overlooking the lake:
There is a lovely beach hike below the bluffs, where Evan happily threw rocks into the water:
And where James happily posed for photos:
And where James also spent a lot of time climbing on things:
It was a really pretty hike, and a really beautiful day:
I'll be heading over to central NY to visit with my mom and sister and niece for a few days. Not that I ever blog that regularly, but don't expect anything for a while.
Oh! And while I'm on the subject of photos -- Yahoo is shutting down their photo site, so I've transfered all of my photos to Google. I've even uploaded recent photos (there are actually some that don't make it onto the blog) so check it out.
22 June 2007
friday photos
Last weekend, kind of at the last minute, we decided to go camping. We went to beautiful Letchworth State Park and did some hiking, saw some waterfalls, and did a lot of playing in the river. This was Evan's first camping trip, and aside from crying "I WAN' GO HOOOOOME!!" for about half an hour after sunset on Saturday night, he did really well. Much like James at the same age, Evan's favorite camping activity was throwing rocks in the water. In fact, that was still James' favorite activity too.
We saw thousands -- and I'm not exaggerating -- of teeny-weeny little frogs all over the riverbanks. You'd walk along the sand and every step you took would send a dozen frogs hopping out of your path. They were very easy to catch, though:
Roasting hot dogs over a campfire -- there is very little that tastes better than this:
Evan, hiking, in a rare moment when he was not begging to be carried:
James posing on a bridge:
James playing by the river. Notice the rock cliffs; apparently Letchworth is known as the "Grand Canyon of the East":
We also took a lot of pretty nature photos -- butterflies, wildflowers, frogs. It was really nice to just get away and not think about stupid frustrating apartment hunting for a couple of days. We all really enjoyed ourselves -- hopefully we'll get to do it again soon.
05 January 2007
home again
We are home from the west coast, happy and tired, and after two days, still adjusting to east coast time. We had a nice relaxing vacation, full of lazing around and playing video games (I finally got to try Nintendo Wii, and it's as fun as everyone says -- and good for the kiddos, too), playing board games, watching movies (mostly kids' or family movies: we saw Happy Feet in the theater, and at Greg's parents we watched Cars, Over the Hedge, The Fox and the Hound (which still manages to make me cry after all these years), The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins, The Sword in the Stone, Wallace and Gromit's Curse of the Were-Rabbit, and Batteries Not Included*, which we found in the bargain bin at Wal-Mart [which I only shopped at for lack of other options, really] along with Short Circuit. Score! And let's not forget the quintessential Christmas movie, A Christmas Story.), eating lots of delicious unhealthy food, and other things that probably contributed to a significant holiday weight gain. It was nice to see Greg's family again, and always fun to hang out with his siblings.
The holidays were nice, too. It was a Star Wars Christmas -- the boys got cool gifts such as Star Wars Transformers (which impressed Greg's friends as much as our kids), Star Wars blankets (made by Greg's sister), a lightsaber video game, Star Wars potato-heads, Star Wars action figures... am I forgetting anything? It was a lot of Star Wars stuff. George Lucas makes his living off of people like us. And New Year's was nice, if not terribly exciting. We spent it at Greg's grandparents' house with his family, where James had his first taste of champagne (accidentally! I thought it was sparkling cider!) and Greg and I stayed up long into the night playing games with his brother and sister.
The other notable event on our trip was the flight home. We hit the worst turbulence I've ever been in , and it was actually really scary. Three times I had the stomach-dropping feeling you get on a roller-coaster, and I wasn't the only one, because the third time was accompanied by a collective gasp from my fellow passengers. Greg comforted a slightly freaked-out James while I held on to a sleeping Evan for dear life during the shaking and jumping around. Scary. But obviously we made it through safely.
I didn't take many photos, mostly out of laziness, but the few I did take, I'll try to post on the Yahoo site this weekend. I'm probably forgetting to mention a lot of things, but now that I'm home I have more time for the Internet and I'm feeling an urge to blog after my short break. Of course, every time I say that my mind immediately goes blank and I can't think of a single thing to write about. But Kim's latest post has inspired me to write a similar post soon, and I'm hoping to get together a review of 2006, and James' birthday is coming up in a few days, so as long as I take the time to sit down and write, I will have things to write about.
__________________________________________________________
*Guess who wrote Batteries Not Included? Brad Bird, of The Incredibles and Iron Giant fame -- two of my favorite American animated films. And I thought he couldn't be any cooler.
11 December 2006
weekend highlights
My sister and I had a nice little mini-vacation in Washington DC. We managed to pack a lot of interesting things into one day and one morning. I'd have to say that my personal highlights from the weekend were the museum in Ford's Theatre, and the Vietnam War Memorial, for many reasons. I was also impressed by seeing the Constitution in the National Archives, and the FDR Memorial.
Ford's Theatre was a lot more interesting than I was expecting, and I was expecting it to be interesting. I was kind of amazed by the quantity of memorobilia, and it was startling to see just how widely Lincoln's death was mourned, how passionately and deeply people felt about his assassination, especially when I imagine what the reaction would be if the current president were assassinated. Not that there wouldn't be a lot of grief from many people, but I can't imagine loving a president the way people loved Lincoln in his time.
The Vietnam Memorial affected me in a surprising way. Seeing photos of young soldiers propped up against the base of the wall really drove home the fact that the Vietnam War is really not that far behind us. To think that some people visit that memorial because they are still grieving someone close to them was sobering in a way that the WWII memorial, for example, was not. It is a part of our past yet still very present for many people.
I hadn't even known before my trip that there was an FDR memorial, but it's really quite large and beautiful, with four separate outdoor "rooms," one for each term of his presidency, and lots of waterfalls and inspirational quotes carved into the stone.
Other notable events for me:
- Falling in love with Van Gogh's painting of Roses, which I'd never seen before, as well as delighting in many Monets in the National Gallery of Art
- Eating swordfish, gnocchi, and pomegranate for the first time
- Being photographed with R2D2 and C3P0 (my kids were so excited to hear about that)
Being surrounded by so much history and government was kind of inspiring -- especially seeing the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights in the National Archives. It was a reminder that despite how dissatisfied I may be with the current government, there is a tradition in this country to be proud of. I guess I felt some faint stirrings of patriotism in my cynical little heart. And now I'm really looking forward to going back some time, to taking my kids to all of the museums and monuments and memorials and teaching them about history, democracy, civic pride.
Oh, my, I believe I'm getting a little starry-eyed here. Anyway, it was a nice weekend, a much-needed break from my wonderful (yet demanding) children, and some quality time with a person I love. There are photos (lots and lots of them -- we got a new, huge memory card for the camera last week) posted on my Yahoo page if you're interested in seeing how goofy we were.
Edit: I can't believe I totally forgot to mention the amazing Rembrandt exhibit we saw, and an equally amazing exhibit of Bibles before the year 1000. Both fascinating -- could have easily spent hours looking at each.
08 December 2006
friday photos
We have our first real snow! This was the view from my back door this morning:
I like to joke that the first snowfall of the year immediately makes everyone forget how to drive. You either have someone inching along at 10mph on clear roads because there's snow on the sidewalks, or you have someone who's forgotten to brush off their windows and mirrors flying past you, spraying slush, at 20mph above the limit. People instantly become idiots on the road.
This morning, my friends, I became one of those people. I was rounding a curve and when I hit the brakes I started to slide. So I let up on the brakes but I couldnt' change direction or I would've hit another car. So I crashed into the curb. Luckily the only injuries were a hubcap knocked askew, and a little bruising to my ego. I suppose, though, since that's the closest I've come to a traffic accident in 9 years of driving, I'm still doing pretty well.
Yesterday I decided to try to take Christmas photos of the boys, since I'll need to send out Christmas cards in the next week before we leave for Washington. Well, here were a couple of the better photos to come from the photo shoot:
