Tag Archives: Maggie

Franconia Sculpture Park

On Saturday we completed our annual pilgrimage to Franconia Sculpture Park, which remains as magical as ever. (In my understated way, I referred to it as the 8th wonder of the world when we first visited in 2011.)

This trip was further enhanced by the presence of our friends Katrina, Jason, and Hendrick who moved to Minnesota at the beginning of the summer. They were part of our birthing group in the bay area, and Hendrick was born just a month before Griff. It’s been fun seeing Griffin and Hendrick play together as full-size kids, when they used to gurgle on a play mat together back in Oakland. We’re grateful that both of our families have landed in the same place again.

I tried to mention the artists and the titles of their sculptures in the captions, though I didn’t record the outhouse one and can’t find it online. Most of the artists haves pages linked from a page at the Franconia website.  They all have interesting stories, but I was particularly struck by the story of Michael Richards, the artist behind the “Are You Down?” sculpture featuring three Tuskeegee Airmen in a black sand circle. He created the original sculptures in resin in 2000, and then began a residency at the World Trade Center. He was killed on September 11, 2001. Franconia led a successful kickstarter campaign to have his pieces cast in bronze (his original intent). The fully realized piece was unveiled on September 11, 2012. It is the only permanent installation at the park.

"Are You Down?" by Michael Richards
“Are You Down?” by Michael Richards

Loons and otters, frogs and leeches

It’s been a great weekend for wildlife at the cabin. We spotted the otters cavorting in the lake yesterday, the first time Andrew and the kids have seen them. They were leaping and diving in the west bay, near the old beaver lodge. We got quite close to them in the canoe, and could clearly hear them chittering. Very exciting!

The loons are present as always, though they’ve kept their distance. Their calls, especially after dark, are as haunting and beautiful as ever. We also spotted a bald eagle on the island, along with a kingfisher and a smaller bird of prey, a kestrel perhaps? Some sort of white crane or heron flew low across the water too.

The leech whisperer
Griffin, the leech whisperer.

Beneath the surface we spotted a perch, plenty of minnows, a turtle, and lots of frogs and leeches along the marshy shoreline. Griffin loves the leeches and catches them with ease. He’s inspired us to be less concerned about them. They’re slow to attach, painless, easy to remove, and harmless. (Unlike mosquitoes and ticks, leeches rarely harbor anything harmful to humans since they primarily feed on amphibians.) I’ll take them over all the other bloodsucking pests.

During our swim yesterday we also found a sizable rib, probably from a deer.

Finally, we learned recently that there is a northern flying squirrel nesting near the cabin! They are nocturnal, so we haven’t spotted her, but Jeff saw her on his last visit. Her distinctive voice is quite noticeable just after sunset.

Enjoy a few photos below of some migratory mammals we’ve seen quite a bit of.

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Looking for frogs.
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Ready for adventure.
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Wading by the island.
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More otters please!
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“It’s our swimming pool!”
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Proud pool engineers.
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A thinking soak.
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Maggie pool!

Adventure Week, Day 4

Today we headed to the always engaging Tamarack Nature Center. It’s a fantastic, free, county park that features rocks to climb, caves and tunnels to explore, an extensive stream and sand area (great for building huge dams), and a massive demonstration garden. Although we’ve been many times in the past, this was the first time this summer, and it’s very adventuresome.

Enjoy the pics — click to see big ones.

Adventure Week, Day 3

Today’s adventures were constructed around Sarah and Andrew’s dental adventures. The main excitement was at Nicollet Commons Park in Burnsville, about 20 minutes south of Saint Paul. It’s a free “splash pad” style park, with an extensive set  of pools, waterfalls, and fountains. It’s another new park for us — we read about it in a magazine highlighting local water parks.

Click on a picture to see an immersive slideshow.

Adventure Week

Today is the first day of Adventure Week. This, as everyone knows, is a week when you don’t already have lots of summer plans, so you go on adventures every day. (Yes, I know that I call just about every outing an adventure, but the kids don’t yet roll their eyes at my hyperbole.)

Our adventure today was heading over to Como Town, a little amusement park not far from here. It’s popular, but not mobbed like a real amusement park; this one is aimed at a younger crowd. Griffin is now tall enough for almost all of the rides, and there are lots that work well for Maggie too. And they don’t charge for chaperones if you need to go on a ride with a younger kid. (Lots of places do… grrr… I love paying double for the tea-cup ride.)

The only fail was the Tilt-a-Whirl. Maggie basically screamed like she was dying the whole time, while Griffin howled with glee right next to her, and Sarah and I attempted to not throw up on both of them.  (In retrospect, I wish I’d pulled out my phone for a family selfie.) Maggie recovered quickly, though she may be burdened with a lifelong fear of spinning, lurching hemispheres.

 

Summer Fun at Grandma and Grandpa’s

This weekend we went down to Courtland to celebrate Grandpa Jeff’s birthday and visit with  family friends. But I didn’t take many pictures of all that good stuff (oops). Instead, my camera usually came out when we were outside, playing in the sprinklers, checking out the nascent tree house, and, of course, riding around on the mini-ATV from Uncle Bruce.

As always, click on the pictures for an immersive slide-show.

Home Again

We’re back!

Mileage: 105916 (Trip total: 4750 miles; about 92 hours of driving.)

It was a fantastic trip, but we’re happy to be back home. Some images from our first few days, with perfect summer weather:

Scobie Park

It’s our first day of driving back to Minnesota. It’s been a hard push. We have fewer days to cover the miles this time, and we hope to rendezvous with friends at Rocky Mountain National Park tomorrow night. After nine hours of driving, we finally pulled off for dinner in Wendover, at the Nevada/Utah border. Nestled between the casinos and gas stations was an awesome, old-school playground and picnic area. Not only does it have tons of cool playground equipment, but it has freight rail tracks right next to it. The kids had front row seats to a massive train roaring through. Some local kids were celebrating a piñata birthday party and welcomed Griffin and Maggie, playing with them while we got our food organized and then bringing over some cake to share. A glorious end to a long slog. (Technically, we’re still slogging to Salt Lake City as I tap this out, but the kids are asleep and the 100 degree daytime temperatures are behind us.)

If you find yourself in Wendover with kids in the car, skip the slots and chill out at Scobie Park.

Merry-go-round
These old merry-go-rounds were a staple of playgrounds when I was a kid, but now they’re nearly extinct. Griffin needed help figuring out how to use it!
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I have never seen one of these before. It swings. It spins. It teeters. And it has a weird creepy face. Serious fun.
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Maggie loving life.

Addendum:

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Upon our late-night  arrival at an inn, G and M snuggle up for the night.

San Diego 2014

At the end of our California trip we flew from SF to San Diego to spend a few glorious days with our dear friends, Liz and Kevin, and their son, Gabe. (Plus adorable Buddy.) We hung out at the beach, went on leisurely walks around the neighborhood, spent a day at the zoo, and played with Buddy in the yard. Below are photos from many of these adventures. (The zoo photos were hum-drum, so we’ve left them out. It’s a great zoo though; you should go there.)

Kevin, among many other things, is a brilliant photographer. We always treasure the shots he takes on his camera. All of the photos below that are marked “-KM” are Kevin’s. The rest were taken by Sarah or Andrew.

Remember that you can click on a photo to see the set in a full window slide show — they look best big!