Family Outings « Brian’s Brain

Pumpkin Prowl

27 10 2009

Last Friday, I took Alex to the Pumpkin Prowl at the Woodland Park Zoo. The Pumpkin Prowl is a fundraiser for… actually, I don’t know what it’s a fundraiser for. Does it really matter? Kids parade through the zoo in costumes. Even if they were raising money for Dr. Evil’s Foundation for World Conquest, we’d go anyway. We met one of Alex’s school friends at the zoo. Unfortunately, last Friday was Patrick’s first day of fever, so neither he nor Molly joined us.

We’re lucky we found parking at the zoo. We had just a small hike from one of the west parking lots to the south entrance. On the way, Alex (in his Gymboree lion costume) starts walking next to another little boy with the best homemade robot costume ever. It had lights. Every parent we passed stared in open admiration at the robot and oohed-and-aahed over him. Our cute little lion only got passing attention from the other parents, when they thought the two kids were going to the zoo together as the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion. I now know what it feels like to be the plain girl who’s best friends with the homecoming queen.

Alex and the robot.

I don’t know if it’s because Alex and the robot were about the same size, but the two of them really hit it off on that short walk to the zoo entrance. They talked a lot, walked next to each other the whole way, and even introduced themselves (although I didn’t catch the robot’s name). And then, just like that, they parted ways once they entered the zoo. Didn’t think anything of it. Only preschoolers seem to make and forget friendships so quickly.

There’s an entertainment stage set up near the zoo entrance. That’s where we met Alexa, who was dressed as a pink butterfly. When we met, a young ballet troupe was performing some strange dance routine on stage. (I’ll admit I’m not a dance person, so all dance is “strange.”) They hadn’t attracted much of an audience, but our two preschoolers were fascinated and stared at them until they left the stage.

Alex and Alexa watch the ballet troupe.

With the dance distraction gone, Alex and Alexa set off on their next conquest: Trick or treating. There were about a dozen trick-or-treat stands set up around the zoo, each sponsored by a different local business. Both kids mastered an enthusiastic “Trick or treat!” battle cry before swooping in to seize candy. Surprisingly, I didn’t have a hard time convincing Alex that he couldn’t eat all of the candy that night. He seemed happy just collecting it into his bag.

During the Pumpkin Prowl, most of the zoo grounds are closed. They keep everyone moving along a pumpkin-lined loop that leads from the south entrance to the Zoomazium and then back again. And for the Pumpkin Prowl, the Zoomazium gets transformed to the Boomazium, a small and not-very-scary haunted house. (Very appropriate for a preschool audience.) The most challenging part of the whole trip was convincing two three-year-olds to wait in line for the Boomazium. They couldn’t understand why they couldn’t just stroll past everybody and go right in.

Waiting to get into the Boomazium.

All in all, it was a successful trip. Even days later, Alex was still talking about it. Hopefully we can get Patrick out to it next year!

Even fearsome, roaring lions need blankies.

Spooky flamingos at the Woodland Park Zoo’s Pumpkin Prowl.

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Categories : Alex, Family Outings

Weekend-O-Pumpkins!

12 10 2009

It’s pumpkin patch time! Prior to having kids, I never visited a pumpkin patch. I’ve also never been that big into jack-o-lanterns, and I’m content making pumpkin pies from a can. However, ever since Alex has been old enough to waddle around, I’ve relished our October pilgrimages to the pumpkin patch.

On Saturday, we went to The Farm at Swan’s Trail in Snohomish. One of Alex’s old classmates from daycare organized this trip. It was our first time to this farm. Compared to our usual farm (South 47 Acres), it’s a longer drive to get to Snohomish. The rewards are views of Mt. Baker and a lot of activities. I’d say that The Farm at Swan’s Trail is 3 to 4 times larger than South 47 Acres. We met two of Alex’s classmates there. We were supposed to meet a third classmate, but the farm was so big that we never crossed paths!

The kids had a grand time. The clear favorite activity of the trip was the hay maze. Inside a dark barn, there was a maze from hay bales stacked two high. Adults had no problem seeing over the hay, but it must have been kind of spooky from a preschooler’s point of view. Alex kept saying he was scared in his first trip to the barn. However, it didn’t take too long for all three kids to get over their fear of the dark. Soon they all learned the quickest way through the ground floor of the barn, up the stairs, and over to the wobbly purple slide that sped them down to a pile of soft, itchy hay. The kids kept running and sliding through the maze for a solid half hour. They would have kept going for a lot longer if the parents hadn’t presented a unified front that we had to do something, anything, else.

We lured the kids out of the hay maze and into the “play area.” This was a large, fenced off compound at the farm (with a separate $5 admission). Inside the play area, they had a huge pit of hay for climbing and jumping, big slides made from industrial plastic tubing, an enormous pit of corn kernels. (Think of one of rooms full of plastic balls, like you’d find at Chuck-E-Cheese or xkcd, only substitute “corn” for “plastic balls,” and you’ve got the right idea.) The play area was totally worth the $5 admission.

Alex, before and after jumping into a pile of hay.

The corn pit.

In between those major attractions, we found time to visit the petting zoo, watch a duck race, and watch a dramatic reenactment of the Three Little Pigs. Oddly, the one thing we didn’t see much of were pumpkins. Sure, they had a few pumpkins on display that weighed more than our entire family combined, but we didn’t see the fields full of pumpkins. I’m sure they were there, somewhere, but The Farm is so big we missed them.

This little piglet was one of the stars of The Farm’s pig show.

Luckily, we returned to South 47 Farm on Sunday. This was a much more mellow excursion. It didn’t have a hay maze or a play area, but it did have a big field of pumpkins visible right from the parking lot! Alex and Patrick had a great time picking out pumpkins for us to take home. (I suppose a more accurate description of the process is Alex put every pumpkin he could pick up into our wheelbarrow. Our job was to “edit” his selections, or we would have brought the entire field home with us.)

Patrick at a table full of pumpkins at South 47 farm.

Alex pushes Patrick in his wheelbarrow of pumpkins at South 47 farm.

All in all, it was a great weekend. Lots of fun, lots of time with friends, lots of time outside. I hope the rest of October is this nice!

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Categories : Alex, Family Outings, Patrick

Prosser Hot Air Balloon Festival

29 09 2009

This past Saturday, I convinced Molly to let me take another mini-vacation. Friday night, after the kids ate dinner, I threw my camera bag and a change of clothes into the car and headed over the mountains to the small town of Prosser, Washington for their annual hot air balloon rally. I crashed for a few hours in a Best Western in the Tri-Cities, then drove under the clear pre-dawn stars to the Prosser airport, which is really a grass field with a few small corrugated metal hangars.

Even though I made it to the airport by 6:00 AM, the field was already full of people, pickup trucks, and blue tarps spread over the grass. The balloon crews were stretching the deflated nylon balloons in long thick lines over the tarps. The crowds sipped coffee bought from the PEO Sisterhood table. Everybody had a camera in hand.

The inside of a hot air balloon, photographed during the cold-fill.

The real action started around 7:00. The sun peeked over the nearby hills, the master of ceremonies released two small helium balloons into the sky so the pilots could judge the winds, and then the pilots started filling the balloons. The loud droning of thirty-four large gas-powered fans filled the airport. For ten minutes, the crews used the fans to inflate their balloons with cold air. All across the airport, the colorful nylon popped up from the ground like gigantic mushrooms. When the balloons had enough structure from cold air, the pilots started firing the propane burners. It was as if each wicker basket had magically transformed into a fire-breathing dragon. Each tongue of flame shot upward with a loud whoosh and if you were standing anywhere close to one of the burners, you felt the waves of heat wash over you.

The crew starts hot-filling a balloon.

In surprisingly little time, the sky filled with balloons. Camera gear in hand, I jogged three blocks from the airport to the Yakima river. Just like at the airport, a small crowd lined the sidewalks on both sides of the bridge. From this vantage point, you could enjoy the most picturesque sights of the rally. Most of the balloon pilots rode the wind over to the Yakima river, then descended for a splash-and-dash: They let the basket dip into the river, then fired the burners to ascend from the water. Some were able to cruise along the surface of the river for a considerable distance. Others started their river runs on the east side of the bridge. The winds blew the balloons westward, and the pilots waited until they were right next to the bridge before firing the burners. The balloons skipped over the bridge as effortlessly as you’d step over a curb. The crowd cheered for each of these close encounters. Once on the downwind side of the bridge, the balloons descended again to the water’s surface.

A balloon does a splash-and-dash.

The balloon “Checkmate” gets ready to fly over the bridge.

Unfortunately, the rising sun also brings stronger winds. By 9:00, all of the balloons had dropped back to earth to avoid getting caught in unpredictable currents. The balloon rally was over, but I still had a few hours of mini-vacation left. On balloon rally weekend, Prosser is a great place to be. It’s the heart of the Washington wine country. In California, that would translate to excessive bling. But this is Washington, and “heart of wine country” still translates to “rural America.” Downtown Prosser is a few streets, old-time storefronts (too many empty), a nice park, and a big feed & grain store. Napa it’s not.

A truck outside the feed & grain store in Prosser.

This small town throws down the welcome mat on Rally weekend. There’s a farmer’s market in the morning, complete with a Kiwanis club pancake breakfast. Of course one of the farmer’s market tables was staffed by a local winery: Daven Lore. I talked to the winemaker, Gordon Taylor, at the market. (Of course the winemaker himself was standing at the table at the farmer’s market. That’s what I like about travelling through Yakima instead of Napa or Sonoma.) He described himself as the winemaker for the locals. At the farmer’s market, he even sells one of his wines (“Recovery Red”) in a refillable bottle. If you bring the bottle back to him, you’ll get a discount on your next bottle. Alas, I didn’t get to taste his wine, but I’m going to be on the lookout for it in Seattle. One of the other events happening in Prosser on Rally weekend is the Harvest Festival. This is a small crafts/food/music fair that spreads over a few downtown blocks. The booths at the fair have the typical assortment of candles, photographs, and garden art. The music, though, can be really charming.

The best part of visiting Yakima Valley, of course, is visiting the wineries. I saw the full spectrum in just a few hours. Oakwood Cellars is a small operation run out of the winemaker’s house. Terra Blanca clearly aspires to Napa Valley. But my most cherished memory will be my visit to Chinook. It was my first time there – it’s always been closed on my prior trips to the valley. I’ve bought & enjoyed a lot of Chinook wine from McCarthy & Schiering in the past. So I felt humbled to be in the tasting room, which was a modest, clean farmhouse room no bigger than our kitchen. Kay Simon, the winemaker, was of course one of the people pouring wine and answering questions. It was a low-key, intimate operation, and everything I tasted was delicious. In Prosser, the greatest treasures are found in unassuming locations. I couldn’t leave without buying a case.

Grapes growing at Oakwood Cellars.

The plus side of waking up before dawn? I could have all of these adventures, drive three hours through desert and mountains, and still make it home in time for the kids’ dinner! Surely Molly will let me go again next year…

Seven of thirty-four balloons.

How many balloons can you count in the picture?

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Categories : Family Outings, Photography

Puyallup Fair

20 09 2009

Although it took us twelve years to finally make it to the Puyallup Fair, I sense it’s going to be an annual end-of-summer family tradition. There’s nothing like utter hedonistic sensory overload to make you crave the return of cool, damp, sedate weather.

We’d been on the fair grounds for about fifteen seconds before Alex homed in on all of the really cool stuffed animals at all of the carnival game booths. Even Molly was impressed by the huge lifelike stuffed tigers they had at the ring toss. I wasn’t looking forward to explaining to him that because carnival games are rigged, he shouldn’t count on ever getting one of those cool toys hanging from the ceiling. Molly spared me that agony when she discovered the ultimate kids’ carnival game. You pay your money, then pluck a rubber duck from a swirling pool of yellow plastic. On the bottom of each duck is written an S, M, or L, and you claim a small/medium/large prize based on the duck you grab. No tears, no frustration.

This year, Alex got a big kick out of the rides. While he was scared just walking by the big roller coasters, once we got to the kiddie ride area he was in heaven. He didn’t have to run more than 20 feet to get to the next ride, and we were there early enough that there were never long lines. Carousel! Giant Slide! Airplane ride! Obstacle course! Alligator ride! He bounced from one spot to the next without a break. By fortunate coincidence, he declared, “I want to go see the animals!” just as we ran out of our $30 worth of tickets. That spared us a meltdown from Alex. We weren’t so lucky with Patrick. Although he can’t talk, he made it very clear with his body language that he thought the you-must-be-two-years-old-to-ride rule was very unfair! (In case the body language was too subtle, his screaming let us know what he really thought.)

We didn’t get to spend as much time with the animals as I wanted. Seeing all of the kids with their 4-H horses, goats, and chickens is what separates a rural county fair from a corporate amusement park. The kids and their families were all so obviously proud of the work they did with the animals.

Finally, no trip to the county fair is complete without gorging on sugar and fried food. While Michael Pollan has conquered the Seattle food culture (every restaurant seems to emphasize its local, sustainable, seasonal ingredients), fair food remains an unapologetic celebration of cheap, processed calories. We got lunch from a stand that advertised At the fair since 1923!, and I’m sure the menu has changed little in the intervening 76 years.

We all ate our fill of curly fries and corn dogs. I’ll admit lunch was our low point of the day. Alex was tired and cranky, and this caused me to get short-tempered. In the challenge of navigating crowds with two corn dogs in one hand, an open cup of Dr. Pepper in the other, and somehow pushing & steering the stroller with my pinkie, I hit a bump and spilled Dr. Pepper all over the baby bag and my camera. Luckily, unlike the encounter with the wave at Cannon Beach, the camera has survived the sugary splash. But we still knew this was our cue to leave, while we were still mostly having fun. Both kids slept hard in the car on the way back to Seattle, and we were able to round out our day with a pleasant, low-key, Indian Summer afternoon.

I still haven’t made it to the fair during the rodeo, and I still haven’t seen the fairgrounds lit up at night. There’s enough happening in Puyallup to keep us coming back for years to come.

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Categories : Alex, Family Outings, Patrick

Lincoln Park

14 09 2009

I’ve got the kids on my own for the next few days. Molly left for a conference yesterday afternoon and gets back Thursday. Yesterday afternoon started well. Patrick took a three-and-a-half hour nap, and even Alex fell asleep late in the afternoon. I had to wake him up at 4:00. While he was a grumpy groggy bear, I somehow managed to drag him into the car by 5:00 for our latest adventure: Our first trip to Lincoln Park in West Seattle.

Going to West Seattle always feels like a journey to another world. The drive has something of an Epic Quest feel. To get there from our sheltered enclave north of the Montlake Cut, you have to take I-5 under the skyscrapers of downtown Seattle, then take the West Seattle Bridge over the sprawling industrial sector, past the iconic red cranes, over the Superfund site that is the Duwamish River, and finally take Fauntleroy Way through a part of the city that’s somehow different in a way I can’t pin down.

We got to Lincoln Park around 5:30. It immediately made a good impression on all of us. While the park is over 130 acres, we had luckily parked just a short walk from a large, well-loved playground that was nestled under the park’s huge pine trees. Near the playground were lots of picnic tables, a covered picnic shelter, and a few barbeque pits. There was a large group picnic underway when we got to the park, and the smell of the pine trees, the new fire in the barbeque pit, and the cool air blowing off Puget Sound made it seem like we were off on a camping trip.

Alex and Patrick had a great time at the playground. Patrick’s favorite thing was to climb erratically up some scary-steep and narrow metal stairs and then slide headfirst down a small but steep slide. I wish I could have captured some video of him sliding, but I had to dart back and forth from the stairs (to keep him from falling backwards) to the base of the slide (to keep him from entering low earth orbit from the speed he picked up on that thing).

Somehow, I managed to persuade Alex to leave the playground after 30 minutes so we could take a walk through the park. (Patrick doesn’t need persuading. Since I can strap him in the stroller, he doesn’t get a vote.) Of course, with Alex, “walk” is more like “run full speed 50 feet, then stand still, then run 50 feet, then stand still…” And “through the park” was really more like 100 yards along the Bluff Trail. But we still got to enjoy a little bit of the setting sun through the trees and the view of Puget Sound far below.

Because we got such a late start, we only spent an hour at the park. We’ve got to get back someday. We didn’t get to the beach, or to Coleman Pool (a heated salt-water pool right on the Sound). From what we’ve seen, it’s well worth the journey.

Alex climbs the fence separating him from Puget Sound, far below.

Patrick is happy because he’s successfully snagged his brother’s cow.

No point watching this movie unless you’re related to one if the kids.

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Categories : Alex, Family Outings, Patrick

Labor Day Weekend and the Museum of Flight

11 09 2009

Long weekends today aren’t the same thing they were, say, 4 years ago. No possibilities for loafing around any more! Instead, our offspring expect us to produce three days of solid entertainment for them. This job is harder when you have three days of cool, wet weather to work with, which confined us to indoor activities. Maybe this is what a cruise director feels like.

We did try one new thing this weekend: The Museum of Flight. Molly had been once, years ago. For me, it was my first trip. My verdict? It’s no Air & Space Museum, but it’s still quite nice. Alex enjoyed sitting in the different airplane cockpits. Patrick, though, is too young to really enjoy anything there. I don’t know if we’ll be returning soon to the museum, but I predict that we’ll get many solid years of entertainment & education out of it when the kids are just a little older.

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Categories : Alex, Family Outings, Parenting

Skagit River Ranch Farm Day

31 08 2009

Sunday morning was gloomy. Oppressive, thick gray clouds hung low in the sky. It didn’t rain, but I wouldn’t blame you if you chose to spend Sunday morning indoors, expecting a downpour.

That’s not what we did.

Instead, we crammed the kids into the car and drove 90 minutes north, to the Skagit valley and the foothills of the Cascade mountains. We went to the Skagit River Ranch Farm Day. Essentially, this was a big foodie party at the farm. It had taken me a while to make up my mind that we should go to this. I knew that Alex would like seeing the animals. Every time we go to the zoo, for example, he heads straight to their farm animal exhibit and skips the zebras and giraffes. But I wasn’t sure there would be enough going on to occupy the kids and justify three hours in a car. Really, would Patrick care if there were three local chefs doing a “best burger” cookoff?

My fears were all misplaced, starting with the weather. While the low clouds smothered us for most of the drive up, in true Northwest fashion they burned off quickly mid-morning. By the time we pulled into the makeshift parking lot at the farm, there was nothing but dazzling blue sky. Before we even got to the welcome tent where we picked up our tickets and our name tags, we saw some of the activities they’d lined up for the kids. For example, they’d buried little toy animals in a pile of hay for the kids to hunt through. Alex got off to a slow start but soon fell in love with finding treasures. He came home with a set of three small cow figurines. (We tried to confine his loot to just two toys, one for him and one for Patrick. Just as we’d almost convinced him, Eiko – one of the owners of the farm – walked by and mentioned to me in passing, “Oh, he can take two or three toys.” Alex once again demonstrated his astounding selective hearing. He’d heard that offhanded remark and looked at me in triumph. “That girl said I could have three!” And thus he claimed all three of the baby cows. If only his hearing worked that well when we told him it’s time to clean the living room.)

In addition to the toy hunt, they had live music (a hit for Alex) and regular games of Chicken Poop Bingo. I think the picture explains it all.

But the highlight of the day for any three-year-old was the animals. There were animals everywhere. Chickens wandering in the yard and sleeping under tractors. Horses being lead for a walk. Baby goats nursing. Chicks feeding. Turkeys – well, just sitting around. We even saw two pigs, even though Farmer George warned us we probably wouldn’t. Like the chickens, the pigs aren’t confined, so they tend to wander to the river during the day and they return to their pen at night.

I suppose somebody who wasn’t encumbered by two little kids would have had the time to listen to the talks about sustainable agriculture, or maybe talk to the local chefs about the use of local ingredients in their restaurants. We didn’t get to do that. However, our trip to Skagit River Ranch says as much about sustainable agriculture as could be covered in any panel discussion. Can you imagine your local Tyson factory farm throwing a party for its local community? If a factory farm did throw a party, do you think you’d want to let your kids run around and play there? I’m glad places like Skagit River Ranch show there’s a viable business model built around sustainable agriculture (and really really tasty meat).

I hope there’s another Farm Day next year. I’d love to go again. Next time, I’ll hopefully remember: Even if it’s cloudy in the morning, pack sunscreen!

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Categories : Family Outings

Florida Sunset

26 02 2009

One of the most fun excursions of our trip to Florida was a small jaunt over to the beach after dinner to catch the sunset. We were only at the beach for 20 minutes or so, but it was beautiful.

One surprising thing we learned about Alex is, if he’s close to the ocean, then he will run in. So as soon as we got to the beach, off went his sandals and away he ran. We couldn’t keep him out, no matter how many times Becky went in to rescue him. (What was Dad doing while his son repeatedly ran into the cold water? Taking pictures, of course.)

One of the most pleasant things about the trip was how close we were to such striking natural beauty. It’s not every day that you get to head out to watch a spectacular show of sunlight, clouds, and water in that brief time between dinner and toddler bedtime.

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Categories : Family Outings

Nature in Southwest Florida

23 02 2009

Southwest Florida is a great place to watch nature and wildlife. It seems that wherever we went, we were treated to some new sight. On our first walk through town, Alex stopped, said, “What’s that?” and reached out his hand to something on the sidewalk. Luckily, those little brown anoles are quick little lizards and it darted away long before Alex could touch it. (The anoles were so quick that I was never able to photograph one.) That was our introduction to Florida wildlife.

I saw something new every day just around town. There were fish jumping in the canal behind the house. One evening, as the sun was setting just after dinner, we heard a really loud bird, It took us a minute, but we eventually spotted the osprey sitting high in the tree in the back yard. The most fun sight came on an early morning walk that Alex, Molly, Patrick and I took to the pier. As we walked out on the pier, we saw a dolphin swim underneath it. For the next 10 minutes, we caught glimpses of the dolphin’s back around the pier. Then, as we were leaving, I saw in the distance that the surface of the sea about the size of our living room was splashing wildly. Pelicans repeatedly dive-bombed that part of the water, and I saw two dolphin backs circling around it. The dolphins must have successfully corralled a school of fish near the surface, and everybody was having breakfast.

An osprey with his half-eaten breakfast. Chokoloskee, Florida.

While in Florida, I took two little mini-vacations within my big vacation – photo trips sans kids. On my second full day in Florida, I drove down to Chokoloskee Island, which is one of the rare populated islands in the 10,000 Islands region of the Everglades. I’d booked a photo boat tour through the islands. I’d spent a while looking on the web for Everglades tours that catered to photographers. This one looked promising, because the tour left at 7:00 AM. (Gotta catch that early light!) What surprised me when I got there was I was the only person on the tour. “You’re it,” the boat captain said. “I don’t take multiple photographers out any more. They keep fighting about who’s turn it is to try to take the shot. One group almost got into a fist fight.”

Since my nature photography to date has mostly been landscapes and animals in zoos, this was my first real experience with wildlife. As in, “animals that are small, far away from you, and are free to move about quickly and without asking your permission.” On top of this, I was shooting from the bow of a moving boat. It’s amazing that any pictures turned out at all.

A Great Blue Heron decides it doesn’t like the boat after all, and decides to leave.

The boat captain was great. He knew the area well, knew his birds, and knew how to get to interesting bird feeding areas. The photo trip would likely have been more productive if I had a quarter of his knowledge of the animals of the area. Instead, I kept wasting precious time on dumb things. Look! Pelicans! Snap snap snap snap snap. Look! Ibises! Snap snap snap snap snap. My excuse is Seattle is as far away from Southwest Florida as you can get and still be in the continental United States. How was I to know that pelicans and ibises were two extremely common birds in that part of Florida, so there would be much easier ways to photograph them than from the bow of a moving boat.

A pelican diving for breakfast, Chokoloskee, Florida.

Driving back from Chokoloskee, I had my most influential Florida wildlife experience. I stopped at Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk on a whim. It’s a well-maintained boardwalk that goes through a cypress swamp in the Everglades. I strolled along the boardwalk, taking pictures of the foliage and the occasional animal. (Look! A raccoon! Snap snap snap snap.) The boardwalk ends at the edge of a small pond. There are trees all around. I see a Great Egret in the water and an Anhinga in the tree. I take a few pictures of the birds and get ready to leave. That’s when I happen to overhear a couple talking. “Hmm, I now see six. I thought there were seven earlier.” That makes me stop and look a little harder.

Oh! Look, there are baby alligators under the tree! Snap snap snap snap.

Baby alligators, Big Cypress Bend. Mama is just off camera, left. She was too obscured by plants to photograph. But I could see enough of her back to realize how small these alligators are in comparison.

It was a strange experience to see alligators just out in the open like that. This wasn’t a zoo, they weren’t in a cage. Both the alligators and myself just happened to want to be in the same spot at the same time.

As I was leaving Big Cypress Bend, another person there advised me to go to the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary if I wanted to see a lot of wildlife. (She also advised me to just look along the side of the road if I wanted to see more alligators. And sure enough, I spied three more just driving back to Naples. I guess seeing alligators in Florida is as common as seeing deer in Virginia.) My second vacation-in-a-vacation was a sunrise journey to Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. This is a large, well-maintained Audubon Society sanctuary in Naples. Like Big Cypress Bend, the centerpiece of Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary is a boardwalk through the swamp. The Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary boardwalk is 2.5 miles long and wanders through several different habitats. I ran out of golden morning sunlight well before I ran out of interesting landscape and wildlife subjects at Corkscrew.

Pine forest, Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary.

In my 10 days in Florida, I feel like I only scratched the surface of exploring and photographing the different habitats there. I guess I’ll have to go back someday.

Look! An Ibis! Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary.

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Categories : Family Outings, Photography

Cambier Park, Florida

21 02 2009

For our trip to Florida, we expected the sunshine, warm weather, palm trees, and beaches. Cambier Park in Naples was an unexpected treat. I’ve become quite a conoisseur of playgrounds, and hands-down Cambier park has the coolest playground I’ve seen.

A massive wooden play structure dominated the playground. Part castle, part pirate ship, it was full of twisting passages, tunnels, swinging bridges, and even xylophones and wooden drums to bang on. Supervising a not-quite-three-year-old, it may have been too much of a good thing: Alex could quickly move to places where I couldn’t follow him and I couldn’t see him. I learned to trust that he’d come out somewhere, sometime, and find me.

This being Naples and not Seattle, the playground had one other feature I wasn’t used to seeing: A sprinkler. It looked like a giant blue candy cane. When you pressed a button, a fine mist came out of the end of the candy cane and made a cone of water about four feet across. When you didn’t press the button, a stream of water drops leaked out. Alex prefered the leak and loved sticking his head into the water drops.