Sunday, April 25, 2010

Cranberry 50 Backpacking Trip

I went on a great trip with 3 friends this weekend. We hiked much of the way around Cranberry Lake, camping out 3 nights along the way...


Here are the 3 guys who came along...our longest day was 16 miles...it was harder than I had anticipated, but a fun time and some beautiful country...


We had some gorgeous mornings, although cold...the nightly lows were 20, 22, and 29...


We passed this pretty waterfall along the way...


This is a picture of my hammock and tarp setup on a little peninsula on Cranberry Lake at the final campsite...


This is my gear for the 3 day trip...about 35 pounds all told...it was a fun trip, but I definitely felt my age and weight on the uphills...

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Ben and Lego

We went to Plattsburgh yesterday, and among other things, got Ben a cool Indiana Jones Lego set, which he had a great time putting together by himself, while I was working next to him.



He loves playing with Lego, and we love the attention to detail, fine-motor coordination, and satisfaction it brings to him!

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Springtime walks

As the snow has disappeared, we've started taking more and more walks in the beautiful country around our home...I'm getting ready for a hiking trip with friends next weekend, so I've been dragging Gail and Ben and Miles all over the place to do some practice hikes...


We went on a couple of great ones last weekend, including this one along a retired railroad bed between Bloomingdale and Onchiota...this beaver-meadow made a nice stopping point about 2 miles in...


Gail and Ben were watching Miles explore the muddy swamp, enjoying some GORP, and watching the clouds puff along...


Miles was stalking some ducks and following a ton of smells around the pond, and along the trail...



We are so lucky to have found Miles, and love having him in our lives...

Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Spring Break 2010, 3rd Installment

Ben and Miles and I drove over to Cranberry Lake this morning to pre-hike some trail that I'll be visiting with friends at the end of the month for a 3-day (40 mile) hike...



The napped a bit on the drive over...



We explored the beginning and end of the trail, walking about a mile at the beginning (in the rain), and then about 3 miles at the Wanakena end of the hike, which was facilitated by nicer weather and cool swamps and bogs long the trail, which Ben and Miles loved...

Ben wore my raincoat while it was raining, it's a little big on him...



We had fun exploring the swamps and bogs along the trail, including finding this cool lichen...



We also came across an unbelievable amount of non-dog carnivore poop along the trail, from (and containing) a wide variety of beasties...




Miles and Ben had a great time on the trail...


Miles enjoyed exploring the woods and wetlands, smelling all sorts of creatures, swimming and running into the woods and bounding across the swamps...it hurts my heart thinking about him living in the shelter for 18 months before we found each other...



Ben and I found some frog eggs in one section of swamp, and even managed to stay mostly dry when "rescuing" them from the water...I happened to have a ziplock bag, and they are now living in the garage, waiting to hatch out...



Ben is excited and proud of the frogs, and is eager to hatch them and find them a new home in the pond/bog near our home...



On the way back home, Miles rolled himself into a tight ball in the front seat to sleep a bit...



About the time we got to Tupper, Miles shifted over the gap between the 2 seats and rested his front paws and head on my leg...it couldn't have been too comfy, but he likes to be touching us...

Saturday, April 03, 2010

Spring Break 2010, 2nd Installment

The last couple of days were a blast...


The rain stopped a bit on Wednesday, so we headed uptown to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art, pausing for a while on the way to play at (and climb on) the great statue of Alice and various friends from Wonderland...Ben and the other kids there had a super time climbing all over the statues, despite the rain-slickness of the bronze (which made all of the parents and teachers hovering nervously in the background a bit uptight...except me, of course)...


The level of detail and attention to climb-ability and exploration potential that the designer of this statue paid while working was amazing...


Ben and the other kids there had lots of fun, and kept checking in with grown-ups present to point out details from the books and/or movies...


Yeah...Ben tried to take off the Mad Hatter's hat...no dice...


After /sliding/falling until he was a limp mass of wet bruises, we went into the Met...took a brief spin through the Ancient Egypt wing, on our way to...



...lunch in the newly redesigned American Wing Cafe, which was awesome...great food while surrounded by great art...Ben thought the nakedness of the statues was a little weird at first, but after he got used to it, he was amazed at the reproduction of hands and faces and arms and legs (and butts ;) ) in the statues...


After a wonderful lunch, we took our time exploring the Ancient Egyptian exhibits...mummies and hieroglyphics and statues and gold and so much more...


We spent a fair amount of time in the room containing the transplanted Temple of Dendur (the story of which Ben found amazing and almost unbelievable)...



A miniature replica of the Sphinx grabbed Ben's attention...


After the Egypt section, we moved into the Hall of Arms and Armor...Ben loved the detailed work in the tools of war, he couldn't understand why people would want tools to be decorative as well, but we liked talking about it and looking...


This golden Lion's Head helmet really got his attention...


He liked the horse armor, and the lances and halberds that the mounted troops used...


As we worked our way through the rear of the 1st floor (based on our admittedly small sample of museums visited this week, that's where they keep all of the best stuff), we found some great statues of Greek and Roman origin, including this great one of Perseus holding the head of Medusa...



Thursday morning was beautiful, so we (and everyone else who had waited through 4 days of rain) headed to the Bronx Zoo with D...we had a fun time with Ben as our map-reader...finding all sorts of cool stuff, including this cool rhino statue...


In the reptile house, Ben loved getting right up next to the glass and hunting for the wee-beasties living inside each display...in this case a ridiculously endangered toad from South America...


SNAKE WARNING: Skip ahead to avoid gratuitous slitheriness and scales and flicking tongues and creepy eyes!!!


Ben was completely hypnotized (maybe literally) by this pretty little rattlesnake...


The gorilla exhibit is cool beyond belief or words...sadly, the glass is super-smudgy in almost every part due to gorilla-crazed kids and grown-ups smushing up against it to get as close as possible to the awesomeness...in this case, the gorilla was a bit further away than optimal...but Ben loved checking him out through this telescope (and if you check out the gorilla in question by clicking on the pic above to expand it, you may agree with me that he liked being watched by Ben)...


We headed out to CT on Friday morning, and after a day of fooling around, Ben was surprised by the arrival of Gail and Miles and Cedar...he spent quite a while telling her all about the week...showing maps, gesticulating wildly, using props, etc...



Today, after fooling around all day with hikes and cooking and playing with dogs, Ben headed down with some neighbors to play in the river...it was cold enough that only kids could have enjoyed it, but they played/jumped/swam in the mud and running ice-water for hours...Ben eventually came back covered in mud...


My dad hosed him off, in similarly freezing water, which Ben thought was fun also...and then Ben piled into a shower to clean off the ticks and leeches and ebola and mud


He headed back into the house, and is sitting on the couch now, chatting with Anti-Sarah and D, while we decide if it's late enough to start making cocktails and think about supper...

We've had a great spring break so far!