Summer is winding down...
and our kids will be heading back to college in a couple of days. Too soon!
We've tried to squeeze in some fun things with them during their brief vacation time. We went to Apple Hill with our daughter last Friday, a beautiful day with no crowds and a chance to stroll through crafts booths and eat apple donuts and fritters. It brought back memories of earlier trips, the first of which was when our daughter was two and had a wonderful time chasing an apple through the grass at Rainbow Orchards. Oh, I miss those toddler years! We went to a few places we hadn't been to in a long time, and briefly thought we might stumble across the red barn with a donut-making machine, but no. There were some shenanigans with yellow jackets at High Hill Ranch. I kept trying to sit down to eat my apple fritter, but had to get up and move around-and keep moving-because yellow jackets would start crowding me as soon as I stopped. HalfshellHusband and our daughter stayed put, and insisted that the yellow jackets left them alone as long as I was gone. /o\ At that point, HSH said that he'd always thought I was kidding about my recurring problems with yellow jackets. Well, clearly not! !!!
There were no Gravenstein apples at any of the farms we went to, which was really disappointing. Boa Vista had a display of Gravenstein applesauce, which to me is like selling ground beef made from prime rib. What a waste! It's a good thing I happened across some while visiting family up in Oregon this summer.
This Monday, I went hiking with our son up in Auburn. He still had energy and stamina after all his hiking in Yosemite, so we went to Hidden Falls Park, which has a lot of short trails winding around through oak forests. There are so MANY short trails, in fact, that I miscalculated how far our total distance would be. Plus, there are randomly created spurs and shortcuts, which didn't help. The upshot was that the targeted 7-8 mile hike to the farthest part of the park wound up being 10 miles, beyond both our water supply and our dinnertime ETA back home. Still, it was really pretty and a nice opportunity. That's the longest I've hiked since before the kids were born, I think. How I've missed it! I'd always thought I'd get back to it again, but HSH can't hike anymore, and our son has been pretty busy.
Today, I went to Old Sacramento with our daughter, just to spend some time with her. She's usually either in her room or off with friends (it's like high school all over again!) We looked at the most epic display of neat socks imaginable. Hedgehog socks! Drunk dinosaur socks! Bigfoot Socks! Obama socks! Superhero, narwhal, and Van Gogh socks! And also visited a couple of candy stores, one of which had Zotz. I bought orange, cherry, and green apple for both kids. Haven't seen those in awhile. I looked for a Marathon bar, which was a childhood favorite that I haven't seen in about 40 years. Still no luck with that one!
The next couple of days will be devoted to getting The Boy's stuff together and packing the car for the drive south on Sunday. I'm recharging the MP3 player now, and I need to download more podcasts for the long solo trip back from L.A.
Then... back to the office grind again. It's been nice having the time off. :)
We've tried to squeeze in some fun things with them during their brief vacation time. We went to Apple Hill with our daughter last Friday, a beautiful day with no crowds and a chance to stroll through crafts booths and eat apple donuts and fritters. It brought back memories of earlier trips, the first of which was when our daughter was two and had a wonderful time chasing an apple through the grass at Rainbow Orchards. Oh, I miss those toddler years! We went to a few places we hadn't been to in a long time, and briefly thought we might stumble across the red barn with a donut-making machine, but no. There were some shenanigans with yellow jackets at High Hill Ranch. I kept trying to sit down to eat my apple fritter, but had to get up and move around-and keep moving-because yellow jackets would start crowding me as soon as I stopped. HalfshellHusband and our daughter stayed put, and insisted that the yellow jackets left them alone as long as I was gone. /o\ At that point, HSH said that he'd always thought I was kidding about my recurring problems with yellow jackets. Well, clearly not! !!!
There were no Gravenstein apples at any of the farms we went to, which was really disappointing. Boa Vista had a display of Gravenstein applesauce, which to me is like selling ground beef made from prime rib. What a waste! It's a good thing I happened across some while visiting family up in Oregon this summer.
This Monday, I went hiking with our son up in Auburn. He still had energy and stamina after all his hiking in Yosemite, so we went to Hidden Falls Park, which has a lot of short trails winding around through oak forests. There are so MANY short trails, in fact, that I miscalculated how far our total distance would be. Plus, there are randomly created spurs and shortcuts, which didn't help. The upshot was that the targeted 7-8 mile hike to the farthest part of the park wound up being 10 miles, beyond both our water supply and our dinnertime ETA back home. Still, it was really pretty and a nice opportunity. That's the longest I've hiked since before the kids were born, I think. How I've missed it! I'd always thought I'd get back to it again, but HSH can't hike anymore, and our son has been pretty busy.
Today, I went to Old Sacramento with our daughter, just to spend some time with her. She's usually either in her room or off with friends (it's like high school all over again!) We looked at the most epic display of neat socks imaginable. Hedgehog socks! Drunk dinosaur socks! Bigfoot Socks! Obama socks! Superhero, narwhal, and Van Gogh socks! And also visited a couple of candy stores, one of which had Zotz. I bought orange, cherry, and green apple for both kids. Haven't seen those in awhile. I looked for a Marathon bar, which was a childhood favorite that I haven't seen in about 40 years. Still no luck with that one!
The next couple of days will be devoted to getting The Boy's stuff together and packing the car for the drive south on Sunday. I'm recharging the MP3 player now, and I need to download more podcasts for the long solo trip back from L.A.
Then... back to the office grind again. It's been nice having the time off. :)