Moose Pond Ramble

Gail and Ben and Miles and I walked out to Moose Pond the other day...it's a nice walk, and a beautiful pond...we brought some snacks and water and went for a swim after the humid walk had done it's work...


We set up on a pretty rock shelf that faces into the pond...you can see Whiteface in the distance...


Miles loves swimming and fetching...he also swims out to keep an eye on me whenever I go swimming...


Ben loved watching the waves and wind playing on the water...


Miles could smell all sorts of good stuff and kept alert to protect us...


Gail and Miles in a nice reacharound picture...


Miles is so handsome...we're lucky to have found each other...


Ben and I had a great time swimming, even though the pond bottom was pretty muck-tastic...


It was a perfect day to bring everyone out to this wonderful spot...sunny, warm, a nice breeze...almost the end of summer, but just a bit left...


There's nothing like warming up in the sun after a cool swim, while enjoying a lollipop...


Miles loves to stay near us, almost always touching one of us...


Ben had a great time...


On the walk home, he found a great stone...


It was a really nice family outing...

Backyard Camping

Ben and Gail and I went camping the other night...being that it's essentially the last weekend of the summer, we were worried about finding a good spot, and since we also wanted to bring Miles along, we camped in the woods behind out house (we have 20 acres, and adjoin 10,000 acres of state forest preserve, so it's woodsy)...


Ben and I built a nice fire for cooking and roasting (hot dogs followed by marshmallows)...a nice hot fire that burned down to perfect coals...


We enjoyed watching the night come to our backyard, and feeling the temperature drop from a daytime high around 80 down to about 36 by the next morning...


Miles helped Gail cook her hot dog on a stick...the grill was a nice bonus for searing the dogs or browning the rolls...


Ben loves poking the fire...either a genetic inheritance or just part of being a boy...


I took this art-y shot to showcase Gail's marshmallow roasting technique...she scorches the outer layer, peels it off, and then cooks the next layer in...


Ben likes roasting them 2 at a time...


I am better able to handle the pressure if I just stick to roasting one at a time...


Miles was trying to talk me into giving him the sticks that we used to cook the dinner and dessert...he was very well behaved during the whole trip...


As it got cooler, and he mellowed (getting used to the fire and food and such) he lay down on one of the fleece blankets that we brought for him...

He's so handsome!

Important Note: Cedar was invited on this outing as well, and chose instead to catch up on sleep in the house, on the couch and bed...



As the night came on the beauty and colors of the fire seemed to intensify...it was, as always, hypnotic and magical...we could hear the daysounds end and the nightsounds begin in the woods all around us...


As the stars came out, the cold came on a bit more, and we enjoyed the feeling of contrast between the fireside and nightside of our bodies...it was a clear night with a nice, fat, yellow moon...


Gail read to Ben by the fire for a while before heading out to our campsite out in the woods...


In this pic, you can see Gail's and Ben's hammocks, as well as Miles' fleece-bed between the two...Once we were settled in, Gail read a few more chapters by headlamp before calling it a night...we were interrupted a couple of times by really loud coyote singing coming from not too far away through the trees...


Here you can see my hammock in relation to theirs...Ben and I had found a nice grouping of trees in a partial-clearing left by a big storm last winter...it allowed us to hang close to each other, and to have enough open space to get a nice view of the sky and stars and moon...


Gail in her hammock, snuggly and warm (until the chilly morning hours)...


Ben in a balaclava, with a book in case of early-morning wake-ups...

Gail and I heard lots of animals during the night while Ben slept...yips and yowls, branches cracking and random crashing through the brush...both nearby and right in the midst of our hammocks...after a while of this, Miles was being driven crazy, so I brought him back up to our house, where he and Cedar slept the rest of the night away...in our bed...

This was Gail's first time sleeping in a hammock, and first time camping in years, so it was both a treat and a trial...a good time was had by all, and we will definitely be camping in our woods again this Fall...

Surprise Florida Trip

We woke up early last Monday morning, and headed out on another mystery vacation...we flew out of the Burlington airport via Jet Blue...we landed in Orlando around noon, and were at our hotel (the Marriott World Center) in time for a nice afternoon swim...we had a 3-day pass for Aquatica/SeaWorld, which would fill the next 3 days with fun in the sun...

The next morning we went to Aquatica, SeaWorld's waterpark, which was a ton of fun, especially in the heat...the rides were incredible, and we played for hours before heading home in the mid-afternoon...

Wednesday we went to Sea World, which was wonderful!


It was a very hot day, but we got there very early, and were among the first people into the park (something we did at both SeaWorld and Aquatica)...


One of the first things we saw was a display tank filled with stingrays, which we could touch...


...and feed...which was awesome!


My camera works underwater, so Gail took this pic of the stingrays swimming by...


We took turns holding the baitfish between our knuckles, and letting the rays take them from us...it felt amazing to feel their bony grinding plates suck in the fish (and sometimes our fingers) before swimming away again...


Ben loved feeding them, although it freaked him out a bit...we liked these guys so much that we came back at the end of our visit to feed them again on our way out of the park...


We next went to a dolphin feeding station, where we got to feed and touch the dolphins...it was astounding to get that close to these huge beasties...I was amazed at the feel of their skin, and the size/number of their teeth...


We had a great time feeding and playing with the dolphins...


Ben loved looking the dolphins in the eye and feeling them...this was a chance to connect with these mammals in a way I had never even dreamed about before...


After feeding them, we went into an underground viewing chamber to check out the dolphins and to cool off...


Bizarrely, while we were in there, a flock of pink flamingoes came down the ramp and into the chamber...my theory is that they came in to escape the heat (which was ridiculous)...


We loved visiting with the family of manatees living near the dolphin habitat...the manatees are silly and amazing creatures...


We went into one of the animal shows, and made a point of sitting in the "SOAK ZONE"...it worked...


The show was silly, but the performers, both human and animal, were fantastic!


We got soaked...


We were sitting up close enough to watch the action under water as well as above, and it was cool to watch the dolphins work with humans to pull off amazing aquatic stunts...


It was a great show!


We visited an alligator habitat, and while Ben liked them fine, he was just as interested in the anole lizard on the fence going through territoriality displays (we'd seen and learned about these on a David Attenborough nature show with Muz and D)...


We fed the seals and sea-lions, which was fun, although the innocent-looking one on the right was incredible at catching/stealing the fish that we chucked to the one on the left...


The show with Shamu and his friends was wonderful and even moving...


There was a super exhibit called "Wild Arctic", which was interactive, filled with incredible arctic beasts, and had superb set-design...we also appreciated the chill after the amazing heat of the park!


Ben on a beautiful polar bear statue outside the exhibit...


Family pic around the statue...

After leaving Sea World, we went back to the hotel to swim and rehydrate before our supper out at a pirate-themed dinner theater called, "Pirates Dinner Adventure"...


We went VIP (very important pirate?) for the show, which gained us a nicer place for the pre-show, preferred seating up front, better food, increased interactivity with the cast/show, and the opportunity to go on-ship after the show for pics with the cast)...Ben enjoyed a pre-show grog in a coconut...


Mid-way through the show, Ben joined the cast up on the ship to pledge fealty to the pirate king...


Later on, towards the end of the show, Ben was drafted to join the redcoats in an assault on the pirate ship to help rescue the princess...he was great!


Not surprisingly, he took his role very seriously...


After the show, we all went up on the pirate ship to get our picture taken with the lovely princess, and her brave and valiant boyfriend, the blue pirate...


Here you can see Ben relaxing in our hotel room...pirate style!

We had a super vacation, lots of fun and sun and sleeping in (for us) and eating out at great/fun restaurants...