Seattle Trip

Just recently I was fortunate to be able to accompany Dennis on a business trip to Seattle. It is hard to know exactly what to say except that it was a fabulous trip! We were there for 7 days, and it rained only on the day we were leaving. The sun shone and the air was most certainly spring-like for the entire trip. While Dennis was at work, I did quite a bit of exploring, and saw many parts of the city and outside the city too.

A familiar landmark, all it got from us was a drive-by...

Down by the Puget Sound on the SW side of Seattle in Lincoln Park My favorite part of this trip was how different the forests are to what we have back East. I was enthralled by the giant trees, root systems and moss and other green stuff growing EVERYWHERE. The forests seem to be so magical...I kept expecting to see fairies flitting around between the ferns or peeking out from behind a clump of moss.

We drove and walked over Deception Pass. The history behind this place was neat...explorer George Vancouver discovered the area and sent his mate, Whidbey, to find out if there was a peninsula or what the water was like. He returned to say that there was a small island and a narrow pass through the mountains. George Vancouver felt decieved by how the land appeared, so he aptly named it Deception Pass. The large island was named after his mate, Whidbey Island (which happens to be the 2nd longest island in the U.S.).

Of course I visited Pikes Market. The rows and rows of flowers, vegetables and seafood were just beautiful. And there was much throwing of fish!

We spent an afternoon playing frisbee golf across the Puget Sound in Bremerton, then drove to Bainbridge Island and had dinner at a waterfront place. Good food, good views.

Mostly though, I was so often struck by the natural beauty of the area. I know it was a rare treat to have so much sunshine, but am so thankful that there was. I visited the Washington Arboretum near Bellevue. Also, everyday, we woke up to a gorgeous view of Mt. Ranier from where we were staying.

My most ambitious day I spent hiking in Discovery Park. It was an arduous climb down to, around, and then back up to see a lighthouse and panoramic view of the Sound. But so worth it, and I was pretty much the only person on most of the hike, the solitude added to the beauty.

The only disappointment was that we didn't see any gray whales...this was the time of year that they migrate north and are often seen in the Puget Sound. I did see a seal, though, at Deception Pass, and we saw plenty of bald eagles, a coyote and lots of beautiful sea ducks.

I am so thankful for a wonderful Mom who was willing and able to keep the kids while Dennis & I were gone! Good memories!

Ohiopyle Camping Trip

We've been back now from our annual trip to Ohiopyle PA for a while now, but I am just getting to posting about it. We came back and dove right into school and routine and laundry...needless to say our 10 day trip was fabulous!
We did lots of bike riding as usual on the Great Allegheny Passage. We completed two new sections this trip...our trip from Meyersdale to Frostburg took us over the Eastern Continental Divide (dividing line for whether streams/rivers on the east coast flow into the Atlantic or the Gulf), over the Mason Dixon Line, and through 2 tunnels, and a gorgeous panoramic view of the mountains.


Lots of old train bridges repurposed for us bicyclists.

A beautiful picnic spot along the river...

We had a different camping trip this year than in year's past. We had some friends camp with us, and here Leah is playing with their 2 year old, Sam. Also, for the first weekend, Heather's parents camped with us, as well as her brother and his girlfriend. We celebrated Dennis' birthday over the weekend and it was fun to have all of those people around to celebrate with him!

In the town of Ohiopyle they had a festival over Labor Day weekend. It is the only time of year that they allow kayakers to go over the big falls. We got to see lots of kayakers make it over, and to our knowledge they all made it safely! Along with the many booths and vendors set up, they had pony rides. Guess who wanted to go for a ride?

Patient anticipation...

Back on the trail...Dennis with Leah on the tag-a-long bike, and John with Sam in the bike seat. Though we bike many many miles (this time over 3 days a total of 54 miles) the kids have a great time. We bring lots of snacks...this time someone had the brilliant idea to put the trail mix and cracklin' oat bran (or dog food as my kids called it) in the nalgene bottles for easy dispensing!

To pass the time when the scenery was a little boring, Bay made up a game we affectionately dubbed "Name your poison". Essentially he would think up two different scenarios and we'd have to choose which one we would rather take. Here's an example:
Bay: Would you rather be eaten by bears or fall of this steep cliff into the rapids?

Heather: Definitely fall off the steep cliff

Bay: Would you rather roll around in poison ivy for 3 hours or get attacked by the bees in that hornet nest?

Heather: I think I'll choose the poison ivy

We played this game for hours...with Leah occasionally piping in her own "Would you Rather..."

Leah: Would you rather be a purple unicorn or a blue teddy bear?

We got some good laughs out of their wit :)

The first day we were up in PA, we drove down (the whole big crew) to Cumberland with our bikes and got on the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad. This steam train took us and our bikes up the mountain to Frostburg (it took about an hour). We got off and then rode our bikes back to Cumberland along the trail (which ran alongside the train tracks). It was an easy ride (all downhill) but a fun way to introduce Heather's parents to the riding that we do when we go up there every year. Of course the kids loved the train ride....

Here is Mountain Thunder (engine 734) pulling into the station in Cumberland. Bay (with Granni) loved it...until the smoke and steam engulfed us waiting on the platform!

Bikes all loaded on the back of the car. Poor Dennis loaded and unloaded these bikes so many times! I think he developed it into an artform!

Everyone at the train station

December Camping Tour

Post #1

We are in the middle of our December Camping Trip and I finally have time to post some highlights of the trip. We left the week before Christmas and drove down to Florida...brought along the camper, bikes, car-top carrier...loaded to the hilt. Everyone is having a great time.

First stop was Faver-Dykes State Park near St. Augustine. We drove down to Daytona Beach after we settled in to visit with Dennis' step-dad, Sam. Took Elsa to a local d0g-park to let her run, and the kids to a playground to let them run! We love the abundance of the live oak trees with all of the spanish moss here...so pretty. We also drove on the beach for a bit, but couldn't get out to walk...no dogs allowed on the beach in Daytona.

The state park we found is a hidden gem I think. It is very small (only 30 sites) and extremely well maintained. It was well secluded and also gated at sunset, so we felt very safe. Here is the view of the marsh from the playground area. We were told to watch out for the local wildlife: armadillos, alligators, snakes and racoons. Never saw any, but heard many things in the brush at night. Not to worry...there is much to be seen further on in our trip!

Visited old St. Augustine and enjoyed the town very much. The kids enjoyed all of the cannons on the fort, Castillo de San Marcos. It was a really neat fort. We didn't do any tour, just ran through the fort at kid-speed! We also walked through the shops in the town and did the Holly Jolly Christmas Trolly to see the Christmas lights...the whole town and many of the bed & breakfasts go all out to decorate everything!

Here we are at the fort with the sun sinking in the background. We are used to the sun setting at about 4:30 pm this time of year at home, so we have enjoyed the full extra hour of daylight while down here. Same time zone, so we figure it must be because we are a bit further west, as well as much further south.

Look for the next post to be from Ft. Myers on the Gulf Coast. So far we've logged over 1500 miles on the truck!

New York City Trip

A couple of weeks ago, Dennis and I celebrated our 12th anniversary. For the past couple of years, we have enjoyed planning a weekend trip to celebrate. This year we took the Amtrak to NYC. It was a different change of pace for us country folk, but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! We went to see this play and were pleasantly surprised with how funny it was. We took the subway to as many places as we could stand and got around quite a bit for 2 days in the city. Below are some highlights from the weekend.

Leaving the Baltimore Penn Station at 7:00 am on Saturday. It is a beautiful, old station in the heart of Baltimore. Very easy to get to. Of course, we were there at 6:00 in the morning!

We took the regional train on the way up, and the Acela Express on the way back. This is a picture of the inside. We discovered something great about train travel compared to air travel...for a comparable price, the seats are more comfortable, walking around is easier, and the trains leave and arrive on time. Plus there is no security to go through, and you can actually arrive no earlier than 30 minutes before your train leaves and have plenty of time. Very easy. The Acela traveled very quickly...it seemed at times that we were going at least 100mph, but I don't have any evidence to back that up. But our trip time went from 2 hr 45 min on the way up on the regional, to 2 hr 10 min on the way back on Acela. Fun either way!

Typical times square photos!

We tried to do as many free things as possible, since everything costs so much in the city. So we did a lot of sightseeing on Saturday...one of the places we saw was St. Patrick's cathedral. It was a beautiful cathedral and reminded me of some of the cathedrals I remember from visiting Spain many years ago.

We went to China town for dinner Saturday night looking for some authentic Chinese food. Above is my plate...do you think it is authentic enough? Care to guess what it is? It was delicious, but only if you like squid!

Evidently something new they have done in Times Square in the summer is to close off the through streets to traffic. They have set up lawn chairs all over the place, 100's of them, and people just hang out, sitting around, looking at all of the flashing billboards and talking. It seems silly, but it was actually pretty nice and the atmosphere was not obnoxious or party-like, it was very calm. It gives all those people something to do. So we sat out at night and joined them!

On Sunday we decided to go down to the Financial district and see the World Trade center site. They have started work on the permanent memorial, which apparently they are building right on the orginal sites of the towers. From the walkway, I was able to zoom in to a piece of wall that was left standing after the collapse. It was very surreal, and gave an excellent perspective on the enormity of the 9/11 disaster. We were disappointed, however, that the temporary memorial in the old fire station was charging $10 a person to go in. I'm not sure what that's called, but it sounds to me like making money off of someone else's misfortune. Pitiful.
After the 9/11 site, we took the subway all the way down to Coney Island. It was an hour-long train ride! But for $2 a person, that's pretty cheap transportation! We got a hot-dog at Nathan's and walked down to the beach and saw the carnival rides.

All-in-all, we had a great time. Wonder what we'll do next year???

Ski Post #1

We got back from 7 days of heavenly bliss is snowy Hidden Valley, PA (no that is not the birthplace of the salad dressing...it is a ski resort!). We have tons of pictures and videos, and I will have to do several smaller posts because there are just too many aspects of our trip to capture in one post. Needless to say, it was by far, the best east coast skiing we have ever had in my lifetime of skiing, which is pretty much, my lifetime!

The kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves, and we found ourselves laughing at many of their comments throughout the week. I am going to share with you something from each one. Our favorite I will save for last, and hopefully by writing it down, it will not be lost in our memory.

Leah was the ultimate snow-bunny this year. We really expected a little more skiing out of her this year (she actually skiied more last year by herself) but she has also developed more of her individual personality over the past year and has some definite ideas about what she does and doesn't want to do. I think she was more concerned about the pink color of her skis, her bibs, her jacket, her mittens, and finally, her goggles. While in the lodge warming up one day, she put on her new pink goggles and looked at her daddy and said, "daddy, do my goggles make me look pretty?" seriously, where did this girl come from!!!!
Bay was pretty much a blur this year. He was non-stop motion. He took a lesson the first day and just took off from there. Any of us who skiied with him had to ski top speed to keep up with him, literally. He would start going down the slope and never stop till he got to the bottom. If he fell, he'd get right back up and keep going-it did not phase him in the least. Very funny. So I captured this picture of him jumping in the air one day when we went outside and made snowmen. He steered clear of the organized activity of making snowmen, and pretty much jumped up in the air and fell down in the snow the whole time. Though he isn't a boy of too many words, he did express several times to me, "mommy, i really don't want to grow up". what can i say to that?

Eric tried out snowboarding for the second time (he took a lesson 2 years ago and pretty much had a bad experience). He decided to give it another go this year and hit it off with the board pretty well. It took awhile to figure out if he was goofy footed or not, and finally decided on normal stance. He ended up taking 2 lessons...since he did so well after his beginner lesson, and he had the instructor to himself, it was a good chance to learn lots of things.

The place where we stayed had 3 levels. Our family got the top floor, which included 2 bedrooms, a bathroom and a loft area with a day-bed a desk and a couple of chairs. We put Bay and Leah in a room together and gave Eric his own space in the loft. At first I think he wasn't sure what to think of that, but it didn't take him long to appreciate his own space (he currently shares a room with his brother at home). We took this shot looking up at him and asked him how he liked having his own space for the week. To which he replied, "When I grow up and get married, I am NOT sharing a room with my wife! I will have spent my whole childhood sharing a room with my brother and am going to want to have a room finally to myself."

We are saving that one for the wedding reception toast for sure!