Month: October 2017

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (October 30, 2017)

Happy Mischief Night, my little ghouls and goblins!  How were your Hallo-weekends?  Ours was – as usual – packed full of activity.  On Friday afternoon/evening, Steve and I took the kids trick-or-treating at Mount Vernon.  If you follow me on Instagram, or we’re friends on Facebook, you already know their Halloween costumes – but for the blog, I’m going to keep them under my hat for a few more days.  (Sorry… I promise they’re amazing.)  But I will say that their costumes made quite the splash at Mount Vernon.  And that’s all I’ll say.  On Saturday, I squeezed in a Barre3 class in the morning and then was home in time to shove the kids back into their costumes for a children’s pumpkin hunt and Halloween party at the Lee-Fendall House, one of the historic homes that is now a museum; our neighborhood is lousy with historic house-museums.  We met up with Peanut’s BFF from school and her mom, and none of the kids seemed to be that into the festivities this year.  Nugget just wanted to run away; Peanut spent half the party “camouflaged” in the bushes, and her BFF was very upset that she didn’t win the costume contest.  BFF’s mom and I agreed that we like doing a Halloween activity together, but next year we might look for a different option.  Lee-Fendall House throws a great party, but our kids were all attitude.  Anyway, after the party we had a quick lunch and then headed out to Loudoun County to pick pumpkins at Wegmeyer Farms.  We came home with a trunkload ranging in size from small decorative gourds to big jack-o-lanterns-to-be.  We had to get all the outdoor fun in on Saturday, because the weather on Sunday was gross – chilly and rainy.  A good day for football, chili, and baking – which is exactly what we did.  Our dear friends the Dumanskys came over, and the guys watched their beloved Buffalo Bills while the ladies chatted and cooked up a storm in the kitchen.  Zan brought red lentil chili and I provided toppings and pumpkin cornbread, and then together we made Thai-inspired vegetable soup (my lunches for the week!) and delicious pumpkin muffins with Peanut.  The only thing we didn’t get around to doing was carving our pumpkins and roasting the seeds, so that’ll be this evening’s activity.

Reading.  It’s been a good week.  On Monday, I finished up the latest Lady Georgianna mystery, On Her Majesty’s Frightfully Secret Service.  It was a blast, as usual, and I have the same complaint as I always do – it went too fast!  These books keep getting better and better and I would like to spend much more time with Georgie.  Still wanting fun, I read the (unpictured) Collected Plays 2010-2015 by Portland Preschoolers, which I have decided is the greatest book ever written.  I bought it to fulfill a Book Riot Challenge task – read a book that is published by a micropress – and it was the best thing EVER.  (I can’t decide what play was my favorite.  I’m torn between “The Hamster’s Adventure With the Baby Show” and “Paris When it Sizzles,” honorable mention to “The 3 Little Deer, the 3 Little Ponies, and the Big Bad Volcano.”)  Clearly, I was having too much fun, so next I picked up Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right, on the recommendation of a co-worker.  It’s very interesting, but I’m reading slowly; I want to pay attention.  I also finished Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe on Friday, and really enjoyed it – helpful that Lin-Manuel Miranda read the audiobook.  Finally, for the Book Riot Challenge – and also Halloween! – I started reading Poems Bewitched and Haunted, which I’m hoping to finish my tomorrow.

Watching.  We’ve been sprinkling episodes of Parks and Recreation – my favorite show – into our evenings here and there, and it’s been so much fun.  I forgot what a delight the first season is.  (Mouserat playing “The Pit” for the first time!  Police Officer Dave describing Leslie as belligerent!  April entering the Miss Pawnee beauty pageant!  Wendy Haverford!)  No movie night this week, but next week, hopefully – it will be my turn to pick.

Listening.  I did a lot of listening this week, because I was getting tantalizingly close to Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe and I wanted to get through it.  It took pretty much the whole book, but I was invested – and misty – by the end.  Dammit, Lin, stop making me cry.

Moving.  Y’all, I am DEVASTATED.  My favorite yoga instructor joined the Peace Corps!  I finally find a studio I like and she’s leeeeeeeeeaving!  (And clearly, it’s all about ME.  /sarcasm).  Anyway, I have another month until she leaves, so I am going to try to squeeze in as many of her awesome flow classes as I can.  Only one last week, because I found out this terrible news on Friday.  But I also fit in two Barre3 classes on Wednesday and Saturday.  I like the instructor a lot, and the class is very challenging – in a great way – but the music and atmosphere are a bit overwhelming for this introverted HSP.  Challenging myself to go, because it’s good to get outside of my comfort zone, and Barre3 definitely does that on multiple levels.

Blogging.  Fun week coming up!  I have my October reads for you on Wednesday, and on Friday I’ll be recapping Halloween.  As always, we have been doing a lot – and the holiday itself hasn’t even happened yet, so I’m sure I will have even more fun to share with you.  Check in with me then!

Loving.  There are certain fall treats that I look forward to all year, and cider donuts are one of them.  (Others include apple cider, both hot and cold, and roasted pumpkin seeds.)  Over the weekend, while the kids were running wild at the pumpkin patch, Steve bought a dozen cider donuts and – yummmmm.  Totally worth waiting 51 weeks for them.  Do you have a favorite fall food?

Asking.  What are you reading this week?

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Twenty-Four Bookish Hours in NYC (Plus, HAMILTON!)

Last week, Steve and I snuck away for a long-planned mini-break.  As I told y’all on Monday, almost a year ago, I bought tickets to see Hamilton on Broadway.  The only tickets I was able to get were for a Thursday night, so we took a long weekend, flew my mom down to D.C. to watch the kids, and hopped on a train up to New York.  We arrived in the city mid-day Thursday, checked into our hotel (more about that in a minute) and headed out to wander the neighborhood for a bit.  First stop – only a block away – was the New York Public Library!

I would like to send you a bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils…

Steve had never been to the NYPL before.  I’d been there – and actually spent a lovely afternoon with a Miss Read book in the main reading room – back in the summer of 2012, while he was off at a Yankees game with his dad.

Since I was the “expert” – a.k.a. had been there exactly one time – he told me to show him around.  Uhhhhh, I’ll try.

We found the reading room, and the book request counter.  I HAVE SOME REQUESTS.

Then the main event – down the main stairs into the children’s section!  I love the NYC-themed mural on the wall.  But of course, there’s one reason why people flock to the children’s section in the main branch of the NYPL.

Hello there, Pooh and friends!

I have always loved Winnie-the-Pooh (and my kids love him, too) and his playmates in the Hundred Acre Wood.  I feel so lucky to be able to visit Christopher Robin Milne’s original toy menagerie from time to time.

Steve said that Pooh was bigger than he was expecting him to be.  I think he’d anticipated something more the Pooh I had as a child – which was small.

After admiring Pooh and friends for awhile, we headed back out into the city in search of something else to do.  We had a lot of time to kill before our dinner and theatre evening, and we’d noticed the J.P. Morgan Library on our walk from Penn Station to our hotel.  I’ve been listening to Book Riot’s new(ish) podcast, Annotated, since it launched – and after their early episode on Belle de Costa Greene, Morgan’s personal librarian, I’d thought it would be cool to visit the Morgan library and see the fruits of Belle’s collecting for myself.  Since the Morgan Library was right there, and we had hours free, we decided to go check it out.

First stop – checking out Morgan’s collection of medieval treasure bindings.  They were really spectacular.

I was happy to see some books of hours in the collection, but bummed that none of them were French.  A long time ago at a university far, far away, my freshman art history project was a paper on medieval French books of hours, and I still get excited when I come across one.  Morgan’s were mostly German and Italian – extremely cool, but I wasn’t quite as well-versed in their symbolism as I would have been if they’d been French.  Most of my paper was about family status symbols and symbols of wealth in the books, which has a lot to do with paint color, so I was able to share some facts with Steve on the assumption that the paints that were expensive in France during medieval times were probably also expensive in Germany and Italy.  He was impressed, and if I got any details wrong – well, he didn’t know!

After we’d gotten our fill of the treasure bindings, we made it to the section I was most excited to see – J.P. Morgan’s personal library and study!  Steve asked me what made the Morgan library interesting/worth seeing.  So I explained that Morgan was one of the financial titans who lived and enjoyed his fortune in a time when collecting rare books and artifacts was a big status symbol.  However, unlike D.C.’s beloved Henry Folger (who focused completely on Shakespeare’s First Folios and rare Shakespeareana and eventually created our Folger Shakespeare Library), Morgan didn’t have any one author or artist who interested him in particular.  He just bought whatever seemed super-cool.  And, as I learned from Book Riot, his librarian – Greene – was extremely cool in her own right (go listen to the episode, if you haven’t already heard it!).  Enough rambling – let’s go inside.

I made a beeline for Morgan’s study.

It didn’t take me long to figure out that the books were shelved alphabetically, so I went about verifying the presence of my favorite authors.  Austen, the Bronte sisters, Eliot – all there.  (I didn’t have time to check for Trollope, but I’m sure he was there too.)  I spent several minutes crouched in front of the Austen shelf, with the Brontes right beneath it.  Although – inquiring minds want to know: why did Morgan have Volume III of Agnes Grey, but not Volumes I or II?

After we got our fill of Morgan’s study, we emerged into a spectacular rotunda.  Once upon a time, when Morgan actually lived (and Greene worked) here, this was the main entrance.  Pretty impressive, no?

From the rotunda, we headed into Morgan’s personal library.  Oh.  WHAT.

#goals

Off the library was Greene’s office, which was filled with more books and treasures from the collection.  Can you imagine working here, surrounded by rare books and objects of art that you’ve acquired (with someone else’s money)?  More #goals.

While I would have loved to grab a book off the shelf, curl up in one of Morgan’s chairs, and read the afternoon away, I thought that would probably have been frowned upon.  So we wandered around until we had our fill of the library, and then headed back to the hotel.  Steve wanted to get in a quick nap (so as to be wide awake for our exciting evening plans) and I decided to use that time exploring the hotel.

Because – we checked off another bookish bucket list item and stayed at the Library Hotel.  I’ve had this hotel on my list for years, and it absolutely didn’t disappoint!

The idea behind the hotel is that each floor corresponds to a different theme, and within each theme, the rooms are all individually themed too.  When I booked the hotel, I requested a room on the eighth floor – the Literature floor.  I also listed my favorite authors – Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Anne Bronte, Trollope – and someone at the hotel must have thought that was adorable, because when we checked in we were informed that they had upgraded us and placed us in the Classic Literature room.  YES.

Each room contained a selection of books that corresponded to its theme.  These were ours – I spy Fitzgerld, Trollope, Dickens, Capote… and Jo Nesbo?

I wandered around the hotel and checked out the scene while Steve napped.  Eventually I found my way into “the reading room” – a book-lined lounge with free coffee, pastries and cookies.

I got myself a Rory Gilmore-sized cup of coffee and settled down to – what else? – read.  (No, I didn’t pull Ready Player One from the shelves at the hotel.  That was my Alexandria Library copy that I toted along with me, and which Steve is now reading.)

Eventually, Steve joined me in the reading room and we had another coffee together before getting all fancied up for our big night on the town.  First up – Saju, a Provencal bistro near Broadway.

Appetizer course: salmon tartare for him; soupe au pistou (Provencal vegetable soup) for her:

(Sorry the pictures are so terrible.  I assure you it was delicious.)

Entrée course: kobe burgers for him; salmon with potatoes and asparagus for her.

By the time we finished our meal, the city was lighting up.

We hurried through Times Square en route to our destination: the Richard Rodgers Theatre.

What’s your name, man?  ALEXANDER HAMILTON!

As noted above, Steve and I have been waiting almost a year since buying our tickets – and really, even longer than that to see the show.  The soundtrack is playing in our house almost every day, our kids love the music too, and we’ve been anxiously anticipating curtain up (metaphorically speaking; there’s actually no curtain) on Broadway.  And the show absolutely didn’t disappoint.

One thing that we both noted, and couldn’t stop talking about, was how funny the show is – funny in ways that don’t necessarily come across when just listening to the music (as great as it is on its own).   The actor who played Aaron Burr was absolutely hysterical – rolling his eyes, side-eyeing, and making funny gestures all over the place.  There were other visuals, too, that took the show from great to once-in-a-lifetime.  For instance?  When Angelica sings, in Satisfied, the line “My father has no son, so I’m the one who has to social climb for one,” Philip Schuyler was cleaning his glasses up in the scaffolding – that really tickled me.  And you know the dubstep when young Philip raps in Take a Break?  THAT’S ELIZA.  There was more, but I don’t want to spoil anything – because everyone should go.  Mortgage everything and go.  It was worth every penny.

After the show, we wanted to keep the night going, so we found a Prohibition-style bar and broke down the whole performance over gin and whisky cocktails.  It was a really magical night that I’ll remember forever.

And that was it!  We had time for a leisurely breakfast before our train home to D.C. and our babies the next day.  It was just a brief jaunt up to NYC, but damn was it memorable.

Thanks for a wonderfully bookish – and way too quick – twenty-four hours, NYC!  We’ll be seeing you again soon, I hope…

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12 Months of Trails: Sky Meadows State Park (October 2017)

I’ve been craving a good, long, remote hike for awhile now.  Lately it has seemed like we’ve been on the go with social engagements – either family or friends, in town or out – almost every weekend.  While friend time is fun and important, we all needed some time to decompress, breathe, and just be together as a family.  And so when Steve asked me what I wanted to do as a birthday weekend activity, I had one request: a hike.

As we’ve planned out our hikes for the year, I’ve had my eye on two Virginia state parks that are a little more off the beaten path: Sky Meadows and Shenandoah River.  Both are within our home region of northern Virginia, but they’re far enough away from D.C. to make it very difficult to get in a hike and make it home for lunch and naps without anyone (coughNUGGETcough) falling asleep.  But lately the guy’s been on a weekend nap strike, so Steve and I decided – if he’s not going to nap at home no matter what we do, why worry about car naps?  With the time pressure removed, we found that our exploration options widened substantially.

After hemming and hawing a bit, I decided that we should do my birthday hike at Sky Meadows.  We’ve actually been there before – in 2009 or 2010; I can’t remember which.  Long, long ago in the days before babies, Steve and I used to go on super cool dates.  Can you imagine?  And one evening we packed up a picnic and joined a stargazing evening party hosted by Sky Meadows.  We plunked down a blanket right behind the house and listened to a talk on constellations while taking turns peering through telescopes at the night sky.  The park is super-remote, so there’s almost no light pollution – turns out, Sky Meadows is a very apt name.

Anyway, it had been a long time, and obviously we weren’t going to be doing any stargazing this time.  (Although I can’t wait to take the kids to one of the Sky Meadows star parties when they’re old enough to enjoy it.)  The park also has a big network of hiking trails that we’d explored a little back in the day, and I was looking forward to reacquainting myself with the footpaths.

When we got to the park we discovered that there was an autumn family festival going on.  We chatted with the rangers a bit and promised to return after our ramble – and then it was off to check out the trails.  We decided to do the Snowden Trail, a fairly easy, but still scenic, loop through the forest.

Here we go!  The path was wide and carpeted with leaves, and the terrain was gently rolling – nothing too crazy; just enough to keep things interesting.

After a bit of walking on the main “road” (a slightly larger path, really) we turned onto the Snowden Trail and enjoyed a quiet morning’s walk in a beautiful forest.

The trail network was well populated.  On the main trail, before we branched off, we saw a large group coming back from a night of camping.  They had several small children with them, which really inspired me.  We’ve been discussing camping with Peanut’s BFF and her family.  BFF’s dad really wants to get his family into camping, and her mom agreed to go as long as I was there – haha!  They’ve been asking us to camp for months, and I’ve been putting them off, because I didn’t want to introduce tent camping until Nugget was out of his crib.  Fortunately, they totally understand that – next summer, it’s ON.

Once we got onto the Snowden Trail, the leaves were slick with dew and I had to spend a lot of time looking down at my feet so as not to fall.  Fortunately, the view of the forest floor was just as gorgeous as the rest of it.  Can you believe that moss?

Eventually, we made our way off the trail and back to the main part of the park.  I gratefully let Nugget down out of the backpack – I swear he gets bigger every time we hike – and the kids scampered off to explore the fall festival attractions.

There were wooly bear caterpillar races.  I liked the caterpillars, but was appropriately horrified at what they will eventually become (disgusting tiger moths).

The kids named all of the caterpillars and coached them ruthlessly through their races.  The ranger in charge – who shared a name with Peanut – thought they were delightfully adorable.

I decided to commune with some critters more my speed.  CHICKENS!  They were sitting on the gourds as I approached and I thought they’d make a fantastic photo, but a fellow park guest scared them off by trying to pick them up.  Poor form, fellow park guest.

After I’d run around snapping pictures and the kids had sufficiently traumatized the caterpillars, we packed up and drove to the picnic ground for lunch.

Nugget was confused about what was happening, and he didn’t eat much as a result.  But I was so excited to be out on a picnic – a picnic! – with my family, and not be contorted into an impossible position shouting at Nugget to stay awake in the backseat as we sped home for lunch in our kitchen.  This was much more relaxing!  The kids had cheese, crackers, tomatoes and fruit, and the parents had falafel sandwiches – yum.  Such a treat!  I’m so glad we can finally do things like have picnics an hour away from home now.  There’s one consolation of the kids not being tiny babies anymore…

Thanks for a perfect birthday hike, Sky Meadows!

What’s your favorite state park?

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (October 23, 2017)

Haaaaaaaaappy Monday, y’all!  I’m heading back to the office after a long weekend away.  Last year, when I was depressed after the election (a state that has lasted some time, I’m afraid) I scored Hamilton tickets and they were one of the only things to put a smile on my face in those dark days.  Of course, the tickets weren’t for another year, almost, but that just meant I’ve had eleven months of looking forward to seeing what was easily the most spectacular Broadway experience of my life.  Steve and I took the train up to NYC on Thursday morning.  We checked into our hotel (the Library Hotel, and it was perfection) and spent the afternoon meandering around the neighborhood, visiting the New York Public Library and the Morgan Library, before it was time to get fancied up and head out for a delicious French dinner and then a Revolutionary – literally – night at the theatre.  I’ll tell you all about it later this week, but for now I’ll just say that it was an absolutely magical night and we loved every second.  We headed home on Friday, where my mom was watching the kids.  The rest of the weekend was devoted to family time and to my big race of the year – the MCM 10K – little brother of the Marine Corps Marathon.  The expo on Saturday was a total circus (as expected) but the race itself was glorious.  I had an awesome time and left inspired and looking forward to my next run.

Reading.  It’s been a really great reading week.  On Monday, I finished Beartown, which was good – very well-written, engaging, and timely – but didn’t really grab my heart in any way.  It’s funny, because I LOVE hockey, and I liked the descriptions of the hockey games best, which I don’t think was the universally-held opinion.  Anyway, after Beartown I picked up Dawn, which I wanted to read because (1) Octavia Butler, and (2) I hear it is becoming a movie (or TV series?).  After reading it – it was excellent, but I don’t think I will watch the show (movie?).  I will, however, read the rest of the trilogy, eventually.  Once I finished Dawn, the reading got really fun.  I tore through Ready Player One while we were in NYC – it had been on my list for awhile and I loved it once I finally got around to it.  And I’m not a gamer or an eighties pop culture geek, so I can only imagine how much MORE I would have loved it had I got more than 10% of the references.  Finally, looking for something light and frothy, I picked up the latest Lady Georgie mystery, On Her Majesty’s Frightfully Secret Service.  These books just keep getting more and more delightful.  I am about halfway through it and expect to be done shortly – too soon, because a visit with Georgie never lasts long enough.

Watching.  The only thing I watched this week was one of the best things I’ve watched all year – Hamilton, live on Broadway!  I absolutely loved, loved, LOVED the show.  We laughed, we cried, we sang along (quietly, so as not to disturb the people next to us), we danced in our seats.  I’ve seen a few shows on Broadway – Les Miserables (twice), Spamalot, Wicked, and The Phantom of the Opera (twice on Broadway, three times with the touring cast – it’s my favorite show) – but nothing that approached Hamilton.  I suspect nothing ever will.

Listening.  Now that our trip to see Hamilton is behind us, I’ve turned my attention to another Broadway show.  We have tickets to see The Book of Mormon when it comes to the Kennedy Center next month, and I am brushing up on the soundtrack.  I’ve done a lot of laughing, and a lot of cringing and gasping in horror.  It’s completely offensive, of course, and also sort of hilarious.  (Orlandooooooooo…)  I can’t wait to see it performed!

Moving.  Great week!  It was sort of slow on the classes front – only Barre3 this week.  I had a rotten night of sleep on Monday and missed Tuesday power yoga as a result, and I was in New York when my regular Friday morning yoga class met.  But I made it to Barre3 on Wednesday morning, and spent the rest of the week resting my legs for the big fitness event of my fall season – the MCM10K!  I had a great run, enjoyed myself immensely and felt amazing after the race.  I thanked approximately 500 Marines for their service and only cried once.  OORAH.

Blogging.  I have a fun week coming up for you!  October hike on Wednesday, and a lovely long, chatty recap of our NYC trip and Hamilton on Friday.  Check in with me then!

Loving.  Obviously, I am loving Hamilton this week!  We had so much fun and the Broadway cast put on an incredible show.  I’ll tell you all about it on Friday, but I wish we could see it all the time.  There were so many little moments that don’t come through in the soundtrack, and seeing it performed onstage was even more incredible than I expected (and I expected it to be earth-shattering).  We’ve been making Hamilton references and jokes all week, and trying to scheme up a way to get back to Broadway and see it again (and again, and again, and again) soon.  I don’t think that’s happening, but it’s fun to dream about.

Asking.  What are you reading this week?

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A Sunny Florida Wedding Weekend

Another month, another plane ride to another wedding!  We’ve been looking forward to my BFF Rebecca’s wedding for a LONG time.  Rebecca and her husband (!!!) Eric first met and fell in love in Afghanistan in 2011 and have been living in Virginia Beach since they returned stateside.  Rebecca planned a simple and sweet beach wedding, encompassing everything that they love – their family and friends, the water, and great food.  Peanut and I were both in the wedding party, and we were so excited to help “Aunt Rebecca” celebrate her special day.  Nugget was excited to ride on the Metro again.

And he had fun running around the gate.  We saw the airport fire truck pulling out of the fire station, so obviously that was the highlight of the weekend.  Ha!

We arrived in Florida a day late and a hundred dollars short.  No, seriously, we did.  Poor little Peanut started showing signs of being sick at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday night.  Our flight to Tampa was scheduled to leave at 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, but there was no question – she really needed to go to the doctor (which opens at 8:30 a.m.).  Southwest allowed us to change our flight to Friday morning instead (for the low, low price of $100).  And sure enough – double ear infection.  Ouch.  Poor kid!  She left the doctor’s office with a prescription for antibiotics and permission to fly the next day.  So, off we went to Florida on Friday instead of Thursday.  Once we got there, we didn’t waste a second – off to the beach!  Peanut was thrilled to see Aunt Rebecca.

So were Nugget and I!  We found Rebecca swimming with her sister and some friends.  Eric was walking the beach with his metal detector and announced, “I’m trying to find Rebecca a ring!”  Gosh, I love those two hilarious lovebirds.

 

Nugget enjoyed a swim with Aunt Rebecca and some of her friends, while I stayed on the beach with Peanut.

Peanut can be kind of unpredictable in her water comfort level.  The Gulf of Mexico was really warm and calm, but she didn’t want to swim.  She got drilled in California in August and has been avoiding the water ever since – oof.  But it was probably better for her ears that she didn’t get her head wet, anyway.

She did have fun playing in the surf.  As long as she was having a good time – that’s what matters!

Eventually her little brother joined her and they had a great time stomping and splashing in the small waves.

We headed back to our little beach cottage to clean up, and then Peanut and I joined the wedding party for a rehearsal.  We managed to get through the ceremony before the skies opened up and we moved inside Rebecca and Eric’s rented beach house for dinner – a fabulous Mediterranean spread.  No pictures from the rehearsal, but it was hilariously slapstick.

Saturday morning dawned bright and sunny.  The wedding wasn’t until 5:30, and Peanut and I weren’t expected until fairly close to zero hour, so we decided to devote the morning to squeezing in a little adventure.  (You know me…)  Rebecca had recommended a local Pinellas County park, Fort de Soto, for hiking, kayaking, shelling and general beach fun.  Naturally, we gravitated to the kayak outpost.

The kids were READY to get out on the water.  We loaded up and immediately shoved off for a morning on the Fort de Soto Water Trail.

Most exciting development of this excursion: Peanut got her own paddle!  As I mentioned in this post, Steve had been “duffing” Peanut in a single kayak, but she was putting his legs to sleep, and she seemed like she would be trustworthy enough to not jump over the side of the boat if she had her own seat, so we decided to try her out in a double kayak.  The kayak rental employee agreed that should work and suggested that she take along a particularly small and light paddle that he had lying around.  (More so that she could feel involved than anything else.)

Verdict?  She loved it!  I don’t think she was any help at all in either the steering or forward propulsion departments, but she had a good time and stayed in the boat, so – a win!  Now I’m looking at kids’ kayak paddles for her to tote along when we kayak the Potomac next summer.

As for me, I still had my little duffer in a single kayak.  Per usual, we were both swimming in our life jackets.  <–see what I did there?

It was a gorgeous day out on the water.  We were constantly scanning the area, looking for the manatees that we’d heard were having a party in the park only the day before, but didn’t see any.  A bit of a disappointment, but I reminded myself (and everyone else) that wild animals don’t adhere to a schedule.  We had great luck out whale watching in California, but there are no guarantees on the water.

And let’s be honest – any day out paddling with my family under bright blue skies and in such a beautiful place is a GREAT day.

The water trail was well-marked with signage and we followed the trail from point to point, watching the fish jump and pointing out beautiful birds.

I could have stayed out there all day!  I’d have loved to have more time to explore in the mangrove forest, too – but we stuck to the trail.

We were rewarded when we caught a glimpse of this guy:

A beautiful snowy egret!  Nugget and I paddled closer to take a good look.

Such a stunning sight!

Eventually, sadly, we had to turn back.  We needed to get a move on, and Nugget was starting to lose his patience.  He has about a one-hour shelf life in the kayak – anything more than that is pushing it.  I’m just grateful that, at two-and-a-half, he is so adventurous and game for anything.  If we have to keep our kayak excursions to an hour for now, I’ll take it.

After the kayaking, we made a quick trip to the beach at Fort de Soto, but it wasn’t quite the shelling destination we’d hoped for, and it was getting close to lunchtime – so we headed back to civilization for a bite to eat and naps for everyone.  (Well, naps for the kids and for me.  I think Steve worked while the rest of us slept.)  And then it was time for the wedding!

Peanut and I headed over early to get ready with the west of the wedding party, and before we knew it, we were walking down the sandy “aisle.”  Peanut was radiant!  At five years old, she has long been crazy for weddings – Rebecca’s was actually the fourth one she’s attended – but this was the first time she actually got to participate.  She took her flower throwing extremely seriously.

Little sweetheart!  My heart was singing to see her so happy.  She was so obviously proud of her role and thrilled to be included in her godmother’s special day.  She also made the most of her moment in the spotlight, stopping frequently to strike poses and blow kisses – haha!  The groomsmen were having a particularly hard time holding it together and not laughing as she did her prance down the aisle.  Eventually, by a combination of wild gesturing and yanking, I got her “offstage” in time to give Rebecca her moment – and she was a glowing, wildly happy bride.

It was.  The best.  Wedding.  Ever.

Peanut and Nugget got to join in the fun for a little while, then we rushed them back to the beach cottage, where we had lined up a babysitter for them, before heading back to the wedding (a five minute walk away – so convenient) to dance the night away.  It was a wonderful, happy, sparkly night that I know Rebecca and Eric will remember forever.  We were so happy to have had a small part in their joy.

And with that – summer is really and truly over.  But what better way to send off the season than with a beautiful barefoot wedding in the sand?

Have you ever been to a beach wedding?

 

 

 

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Apply Dapply, Two Little Mice

Apply Dapply, a little brown mouse,
Goes to the cupboard in somebody’s house.
In somebody’s cupboard, there’s everything nice:
Cakes, cheese, jam, biscuits – all charming for mice!

~Beatrix Potter

On the fall agenda, there are a few perennial must-do items, and apple picking is one of them!  We’ve picked at a few different places in the past few years, and when we discussed where we’d get our apples this year, we were torn between three options – going back to Crooked Run, the Loudoun County orchard we visited last year; checking out the scene at Butler’s Orchard, where we picked blueberries; and trying out a new location.  Since we want to pick pumpkins at Butler’s, we decided to look for a new spot for apples, and Steve hit on Waters Orchard, which is right next door to Butler’s.  As always happens in the fall, I’m behind on posting our family fun, so this was a few weeks ago – but a few turns of the way-back machine and here we are!

The first thing we saw upon arriving at the farm was a big tractor with a large hayride wagon attached to it.  The boys had to check it out.

And since the Jonagold apples were on the far side of the orchard (still walkable, but you know) we hopped on for a ride.

Rollin’ with the homies…

We all had fun, but a certain someone had the most fun.

So excited he had to make “kindergarten face.”  Oh, brother!

The hayride was over way too soon, but it was fine, because we found ourselves at the Jonagold apples!  This was the first apple orchard I’ve ever visited that had the apple trees trained.  I really liked it – made it much easier to get to the fruit.

The hardest thing about picking at Waters Orchard was refraining from picking every single apple – they were all gorgeous.  I don’t know if it was the trained trees, the fact that we came right in the middle of picking season instead of at the very end, or just a good orchard – but their fruit was really nice.

Peanut has been a pretty reliable picker for awhile now (both of apples and other fruit and flowers when we’ve checked out various pick your own farms throughout the year) but this was the first time that Nugget was legitimately helpful.

When did he get so big?  Hold me.

Peanut was all business.  She was a picking machine and kept up a constant stream of chatter about her baking plans.  It seems we will be making applesauce and pie and apple cake.  We might need to pick more apples.

I really wanted them to stand together for a picture.

This was the closest I could get them to stand to each other.

When is Mom going to be done with the pictures?  (Never, kids.  I will never be done.)

After we’d half-filled our bags with Jonagolds, we walked back to the front of the orchard to pick Hudson’s Golden Crisps.  I’d never heard of them, but I was sold immediately when I read the orchard’s description of them as having “a pear-like flavor.”  Asian pears are my absolute favorite fruit, so anything that even approaches mimicking them is clearly on my must-try list.

Also, they were gorgeous.  I started asking one of the orchard employees where they were, then cut myself off and said, “Never mind – I see them.”  She laughed and replied, “Yeah, they stand out.”

Verdict?

Absolutely delicious.

Thanks for a fun family morning on the farm, Waters, and thanks for the half bushel of deliciousness!  Fall baking, here we come…

Did you go apple picking this fall?  What are your must-do fall activities?

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (October 16, 2017)

Oof.  Is it really Monday?  Say it ain’t so.  We had another one of our hectic weekends, running around from sunup on Saturday to sundown on Sunday.  I am wiped.  Friday was my birthday, so this weekend was “Mommy weekend” – woohoo!  Of course, weeks ago, I had unthinkingly agreed to a playdate on Saturday, so I only ended up choosing the agenda on Sunday.  Saturday was fun, though – we went to a bounce house gym with one of Peanut’s friends from school.  I am lucky in that Peanut seems to gravitate toward the kids with the most down-to-earth moms, so playdates for the kids are turning into friend time for me, too – no complaints here!  The friend we met up with on Saturday just recently returned from being flower girl in a wedding, too, so her mom and I debriefed on all things wedding while the kids ran around and bounced.  The rest of Saturday, we palled around closer to home – visiting Nugget’s favorite playground and stopping by the fire station open house to play cornhole, honk the horn in the truck, and collect some coloring books.  On Sunday, I got to choose the activity and I was craving one thing – a hike.  Since the kids aren’t great at napping at home on the weekends anymore (it’s fine that Peanut is dropping naps, but Nugget shouldn’t be) we decided to venture further afield.  It doesn’t make sense to cut off the fun and rush home for lunch and naps, only to listen to Nugget bouncing in his crib for two hours – we might as well be out and about enjoying our beautiful area.  So we drove an hour to Sky Meadows State Park, a beautiful spot Steve and I remembered from the long-ago days before children.  It happened to be “fall farm festival” day, so we got our hike in (recap coming next week) and then let the kids explore and enjoy a little bit, had a picnic lunch, and drove home to the blessed silence of car naps.  All in all – a perfect birthday activity.

  

Reading.  Interesting week.  After finishing See America (which was good, but there were a few editing mistakes that bugged me), I picked up Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng.  I had been avoiding it, because people seemed to love it so much that I figured it would be a huge disappointment.  Totally wrong.  I blew through it in a day, cried through the ending, and generally loved every second of the book.  After that, I needed something a bit sillier, so I finally got around to Nimona, the stand-alone graphic novel from Lumberjanes creator Noelle Stevenson.  As expected, I adored it.  Finally, for the past several days I’ve been reading Beartown, by Frederik Backman.  I’ve been wanting to read something by Backman, and Beartown seemed to be right up my alley – it’s about a hockey-obsessed town, after all – but I’m finding it a bit of a slog.  I know what is going to happen and am just not as captivated as I’d expected to be.  But it’ll qualify for a Book Riot Challenge task (book about sports) and I’ve passed my point of no return, where I have read far enough into a book that I refuse to abandon it, so I’m plugging away.

Watching.  Steve and I have been re-watching Parks and Recreation, one of our favorite dear departed sitcoms.  (I like it better than The Office, and that is saying something.)  We also enjoyed the first episode of Rock the Park season four, and are now mulling over a visit to the New River Gorge (which is in West Virginia, so not too far from us).

Listening.  Still on a podcast kick.  The best episode I listened to this week was the Annotated episode “The Seventeen-Year-Old Who Invented Science Fiction.”  I’d been saving the episode – all about Mary Shelley and Frankenstein, if you hadn’t guessed – for Halloween season and it was perfect October listening material, complete with howling winds and creaking gate sound effects.

Moving.  This was an up and down week on the fitness front.  I made it to power yoga on Tuesday morning, and my very first barre3 class on Wednesday.  (Loved, and will certainly be back for more.)  But then on Friday – my birthday – I was two minutes late to power yoga and the instructor had already locked the door, so I missed class, which was a total bummer.  And I didn’t feel like doing anything on Saturday after chasing the kids around a play gym for an hour, so my only weekend fitness was Sunday’s hike.  (Which was an “easy” trail but still felt strenuous.  I swear Nugget gains a few ounces every time I hike with him.)

Blogging.  Still playing catch-up on all the family fun.  I’m talking about our apple picking excursion on Wednesday, and sharing some pictures and stories from our flying trip to Florida on Friday.  Check back with me!

Loving.  As fall is settling in around here – the weather is still pretty warm, and we’re having the occasional HOT day, but leaves are dropping and so are the temperatures, little by little – I am loving my L.L. Bean flannel shirts.  They’re pretty much my weekend uniform all through the cold months, whether with jeans or with hiking pants.  I wore my favorite orange, green and blue one this past weekend and spent some time marveling over the fact that it is still so soft, and doesn’t seem at all pilled despite multiple trips through the washing machine.  (I do air-dry them.)  I am eyeing another pattern to add to the arsenal, and might have to jump on it.

Asking.  What are you reading this week?

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California Dreaming 2017: A Whale Watching Day For The Ages

With only one day left to enjoy California before we had to fly back to the East Coast (sniff) we were determined to make it an epic day.  Fortunately, we had big plans – whale watching!  I have been on several whale watches, but all as a kid – usually with my dad, but my mom and brother joined us from time to time.  Taking Peanut and Nugget on a whale watch has been high on my list of things to do, and I wanted to do something extra special to mark Peanut’s fifth birthday – so I convinced Nana and Grandad that they wanted to spend several hours on a boat with us (ha!) and we were in business.

We talked the whale watching trip up for weeks beforehand, and the shorties were EXCITED.  So was Nana!

The trip began with a  very interesting presentation by some naturalists who volunteered through the national park.  Seriously, how do I get that job?  They passed around some baleen and some krill for everyone to check out.  Nugget was extremely suspicious.  As for me, I was bouncing in my seat and raring to go.

We finally started chugging out of Ventura Harbor and wasted no time in spotting wildlife – even before we’d completely left the dock area!

Hey fellas!

(I had my camera all tricked out with my zoom lens.  I think I was halfway across the boat when I snapped this, and was zoomed all the way out.  I was READY.)

Heading out to sea, we saw passed the same buoy that we had passed on our way out to the Channel Islands the day before.  Once again, it was covered with sea lions.  They could very possibly have been the same sea lions, and none of them had moved in twenty-four hours.  They really did look exceptionally lazy.

Interesting fact we learned: the darker the sea lion looks, the more recently he or she has come out of the water.  The ones that are light in color look that way because they have been snoozing on a rock (or buoy) for quite some time.

But who’s judging?

Nugget.  Nugget is judging you for your laziness, sea lions.  Just kidding.  Nugget loves you!

Before we’d gone too far out in the channel, the captain came over the public address system to announce the very thing we had been holding our breath and hoping hard for – they’d spotted a whale!

Hello out there, big fella!  (Or big mama?)

We pulled up a big closer, killed the engine, and a hush came over the crowd as we stared at this majestic creature.  It was a blue whale – one of the rarest species in the world.

(Note: these are not black and white pictures!  It just happened to be a really cloudy day, which we learned was great for spotting whales.  I was worried that the cloud cover would hurt the visibility out on the water, but it turned out just the opposite.  With grey skies and calm waters, we had perfect whale watching weather according to the crew.)

We watched the first whale as long as we could, and we weren’t the only ones.  A curious sea lion, way out in the channel, popped over to say hello to his big friend.

And waved us goodbye as they both headed off on their separate ways.

Before long – another whale!

Another big blue.

This one, like the last, took a couple of “sounding dives” – deeper dives, during which the whale stays below the surface and out of sight for about six to eight minutes – while we sat, quietly and patiently, waiting for our friend to come up to the surface again.  We were hoping for some tail fluke action, but that would have to wait.

After a bit more peek-a-boo with our blue whale friend, we were joined by a pod of cheerful dolphins.  Seriously, this day kept getting better and better.

Some of them swam up very close to check out the action on board the Islander.

Well, hello down there!

They were such a delight.  Incredibly playful, they jumped and splashed in our wake as we chugged along toward Channel Islands National Park and in search of more whales.

It wasn’t long before we happened upon another whale!

Check it out – a little spout action!

I was in awe of the way they rose out of the water and their backs just kept going and going.  I can see why ancient mariners thought they were sea monsters.

Another sounding dive!  Before I knew it, we were approaching the Channel Islands – again!  I was excited to see them – after the previous day’s adventures hiking and kayaking the sea caves, the islands felt like old friends.

Ass we steamed closer to Anacapa Island, more playful friends came along for the ride!

We were joined by a small pod of dolphins.  These guys were having fun.

Before I knew it, we were in island waters!

The Anacapa Island lighthouse and rock arches are iconic.

More wildlife!  Another bunch of lazy sea lions, napping on a rock.  These guys!

So gorgeous it didn’t look real – but I promise you, it was.

As we steamed away from Anacapa, our own pod was getting a little sleepy.

But everyone perked up when we met up with yet another bunch of playful dolphins!

This was a nursery pod – several of the adults were swimming alongside babies, which was an absolutely incredible sight.  I love marine mammals in general, and cetaceans in particular, and seeing healthy baby dolphins is a joy.

At some point, the captain came back on the loudspeaker and announced, with a sigh, “Well, folks, looks like it’s just one of those days.  Another whale.”  Ha!  The whole boat was pinching themselves, because it seemed like we were seeing blue whales everywhere we looked.  In total, we spotted eight blue whales and a fin whale.  Peanut was the first to get eyes on the fin whale, and actually called it out for the captain – you go, girl!

Of the eight – eight! – blue whales we spotted, we saw everything from fully grown bull whales to a mother and her calf.  The latter was the most incredible sight all day – we actually had the great privilege of watching the mother whale nurse the baby.

Check out that spout action!  We couldn’t see much, but the captain and naturalists aboard the Islander explained what was happening.  We spotted the mother and calf swimming together.  Then at one point they stopped, and the mother hovered near the surface for an extended time, while the calf could only be spotted swimming around underneath her.  Witnessing the miracle of a mother blue whale nursing her baby was something I won’t soon forget.

It wasn’t a big day for tail flukes – blue whales aren’t big on acrobatics – but we saw a couple.

This one:

And this beauty:

WOW.  Nature is so powerful.

As I mentioned up above, I went on several whale watches as a kid.  The first one, when I was about Peanut’s age – maybe a bit older.  We were in Cape Cod on vacation, and my dad took me whale watching, primarily to get me out of my mother’s hair while she was busy with my newborn baby brother (you know, the seal).  On that trip, we saw a right whale calf, who put on a show for the boat – breaching, spyhopping, tail- and pec-slapping, and being generally amazing and adorable.  The captain explained that right whales had been hunted nearly to extinction, so seeing such a playful baby was a special privilege.  I never forgot that day, and it was the start of my lifelong love of cetaceans.  I’ve been on other whale watches since – including one awesome day when we saw ten of my beloved humpbacks – and I hope that this trip was the start of a similar love affair that my kids will have with nature generally, and with cetaceans (my favorites!) in particular.  Of all of the things I hope to pass on to them, my love of whales – and my desire to protect them – is one of the biggest.  (Pardon the pun.)

As we steamed back to the harbor, we were joined by a massive pod of over a thousand common dolphins – what a way to end the trip!  Photos did them no justice.  They were truly spectacular.

A happy day, indeed.

Sadly, this ends our trip.  It was one for the ages.  I think the whole family had an amazing time – I know I did!  We flew home the next day, feeling exhausted and sorry that it was over, but also very full of love and family and adventure – and I think that’s exactly the way to end a trip.

Goodbye for now, California!  Thanks for showing us such a marvelous time.  We’ll be back soon!

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12 Months of Trails: Piscataway Park and National Colonial Farm

Somehow, I have let almost six weeks go by without telling you about our September hike – whoops!  Truth is, I thought we might be able to squeeze a few hikes into September, and I’d have a selection to choose from, but it ended up being a busy month and we didn’t get out on the trails as much as I’d have liked to.  Ah, well – that’s life, and I’m certainly glad that we made time for a hike in the beginning of the month.  Looking to mix things up, Steve suggested Piscataway Park, an NPS-managed park on the Maryland side of the Potomac, with awesome views of Mount Vernon.  I’m in!

Coming off a successful hike in Joshua Tree National Park, we had high hopes that Peanut would walk the entirety of the comparatively short and easy trail.  As it turned out, it was not her day.  Well – it happens.

Annnnnnnd she ended up here.  Much happier, I might add.  So, it was fine.  We hike for fun, and it’s much easier to have said fun when everyone is happy and no one is whining.  Still would like her on the trails consistently, but she’s only five.  We’ll get there.

As usual, I was rocking Nugget in the hiking backpack.  I’m pretty sure he weighs more than Peanut.  Just saying.

The trail was a pretty pathway through overhanging trees, but what made it particularly engaging was – do you see those signposts?  Each one was a page of a story about a pig who wanted to lay an egg, and all the shade his barnyard friends threw at him.

We took turns reading the story aloud to the kids.  I found the whole thing utterly delightful – the fact of the story being on the trail at all, the barnyard shenanigans – until the end of the story, in which the pig finally hatches his “egg” and it turns out to be a cocoon and the “baby” is a butterfly, and I just, NO.  NO to all of that.  Sorry for spoiling the story, but NO.

Anyway, after a short and easy hike, we reached the payoff – this view of Mount Vernon.  I swear it’s really there.  Sorry for the crummy picture – I snapped it on my phone, as I was hiking without my dSLR.

Our hike finished with time to spare, we decided to stay and poke around the National Colonial Farm, a little historic outpost I had no idea was hiding right across the river from Mount Vernon.

Nugget desperately wanted to play in this garden.  The boy loves plants.

We found a little dock with an even better view of Mount Vernon.

And we made some animal friends.

(Protecting his ladies.)

Why did the chicken cross the road?  Ahem.  Ahem.  Tap, tap.  Is this thing on?

We also met some other residents of the farm.

I derived great enjoyment from trying to make them break character.  (I kept thinking of the Bracebridge Dinner episode of Gilmore Girls, where Lorelai throws a period dinner during a snowstorm at the Independence Inn and Kirk waits at the table – remember that one?  Lorelai makes it her mission to get Kirk to slip up and her refuses, until she finally breaks him with an I Love Lucy reference.)

I never got them to break character, but they did admire my “time travel device” (cell phone) and I had way too much fun wishing them luck with the rebellion.  Their token male was a little unsure about which side to take, but I convinced him that he should join the Patriots and help oust George III.  I think I really bucked him up.

And a good time was had by all.

Have you ever hiked at a historic site?  Do you also like messing with period actors?

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (October 9, 2017)

Happy Monday, and happy long weekend to those who are lucky enough to get Columbus Day off work!  (That is a group which does not include me, or Steve – c’est la vie.)  We had a nice regular-length weekend, though!  Saturday was full of a lot of errands and running around.  Steve had to work on Saturday morning, so I took both kids to the market with me, which is a circus – let me tell you.  I usually take just Nugget and everything really is twice as hard with two of them in the cart.  It’s not just that the double carts are always surprisingly wide (they are) but grocery shopping takes more than twice as long.  I have to factor in time to break up fights (Nugget is a hair-puller, and Peanut is an eye-poker – please kill me), intervene in exuberant roughhousing before it becomes a fight, put back the stuff they grab off the shelves, and who knows what else.  By the end of that grocery run I was so stressed out that the only cure was a run, so I loaded Nugget back into the car (much to his chagrin) and we drove to the Mount Vernon Trail for a few miles.  On Saturday evening my parents and their friends arrived after a week in the Outer Banks.  They seemed way too relaxed and happy, so we set about stressing them out with loud children.  We’re the worst hosts ever!  Sunday found us driving west – first out to the Udvar-Hazy Center (the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum outpost in Dulles) and then onward to the Loudoun County wineries.  Steve and I had been wanting to take our parents’ friends out to the wine country for years; we knew they would love it, and they did.  We packed a picnic lunch to enjoy at one of the wineries, and had a lovely afternoon sipping and swirling our way around Loudoun County – made even better by the fact that my lovely friend Zan joined us as well!  Such a fun day with some of my favorite people in the world.

Reading.  Bit of a slower reading week around here.  I finished Something True on Monday, which was good, but I’m just not a romance reader.  (Nothing against it; it’s just not my genre.)  Most of the remainder of the week was devoted to The Golden House, Salman Rushdie’s newest novel (and a reflection on the 2016 election).  It was good, but for some reason I seem to struggle with Rushdie.  I know he is an outstanding writer, so clearly the problem is with me, but I get bogged down in his books and they take me a long time to read, and then I get frustrated and don’t have fun.  I am glad I read it, though.  I finished it up on Saturday evening after the crew left for their hotel, and then picked up See America, a collection of new graphic illustrations of the national parks, monuments and other places within the NPS, inspired by the original WPA posters.  It was an impulse grab off an endcap at the library, and I am really enjoying it.  I don’t love all of the posters – but I love most of them.

Watching.  Instead of a movie night this week, we watched the first Sabres game of the season.  It was a good game, and I was determined to stay up for the whole thing.  I told Steve that I had the idea in my head that if I fell asleep, that would be it for the season.  Of course they managed to lose in a shootout while I was brushing my teeth.  So that was not the best.

Listening.  I decided to take an audiobook break this week and listen to a few podcasts – especially some back podcasts I had languishing in my feed.  All were fun, but I particularly enjoyed a back episode of Sorta Awesome – Meg and Kelly discussing their favorite meals.  They had me inspired to cook up some different dinners this fall (even if their meals are very meat-heavy).

Moving.  So, a pretty good week!  I squeezed in two power yoga classes and two runs over the course of the week.  I’d have liked to get to vinyasa on Saturday too, but I only had time for one workout and I decided to run.  (A necessary decision.  I won’t be well-trained for the Marine Corps Marathon 10K in a couple of weeks, but at least I won’t be running on completely dead legs.)

Blogging.  I have a good week coming up!  A recap of our September hike alllllllll the way back at the beginning on the month on Wednesday, and the last day of our California vacation recaps (which is also the most epic) on Friday.  Check back!

Loving.  While shopping for our picnic this Saturday, I got the idea to make a pesto goat cheese spread.  It took form in my head as I was standing at the cold case looking at the options, and it came out – if I do say so myself – amazing.  Recipe (loosely) as follows: take one log of goat cheese, one tub of crème fraiche, one squeeze pouch of pesto (I used sun-dried tomato, but you could do any flavor you liked, or olive tapenade) and about a teaspoon of chopped herbs (I did equal parts rosemary and thyme from my mom’s friend’s garden).  Stir it all together until it is smooth and combined.  And that’s it!  It was super-easy and everyone loved it.  It made a ton of spread, and I had none left after the picnic – the sign of a popular recipe.  I’ll definitely be making this again as soon as I have an excuse.  (Who wants to come over for a party?)

Asking.  What are you reading this week?