4/20/08 The Series

A nasty headache tonight belies an otherwise marvelous day, highlighted by our first letterbox "series." We went to a nearby winery, with historic farm buildings and a wine-tasting barn, and famous resident peacocks, then followed a trail to an attached open space preserve. A kind letterboxer planted three letterboxes there, and it was easy to go from one to the next.

We encountered beautiful, varied scenery.


and lots and lots of beautiful spring wildflowers.



..and lots of this. Aww, so pretty, these three shiny red leaves -- doesn't it just make you want to rub it between your fingers? EEEK!


Julian, Gabriel and Aunt Laura each found a letterbox.


Thank goodness, Dad was home with Katrina, or this would have been difficult to impossible -- some parts of the trail were much too narrow and with a major dropoff to accomodate a jogging stroller, and I was very glad to be free of it anyway. The dropoff made us enforce a "no running" rule, which Aunt Laura creatively implemented by playing a rotating game of Follow The Leader.

The crew, having scored 3 out of 3.


It seemed like a long walk back, though it really wasn't, and Julian was getting tired, but on the whole, it went great and we all had a wonderful time. And I got to see a place that is SO closeby, but I'd never fully explored. Wow! I'm definitely going back.

Speaking of series: Katrina put her first words together yesterday: "My SIH!!" which was her demanding to sit in the booster seat in the pickup when one of her brothers dared to reclaim his rightful place. Today she was putting together more words, though most of the time one of those words is "MY!"

I sure look forward to when "My sit" isn't on the program for letterboxing!

4/20/08