Hello, birds!

 

Georgia Southern University has the least fearful geese we've ever encountered. They only managed to steal a few chips.

 

 

 Urban wildlife in Atlanta

George L Smith State Park

For fall break, we planned our first camping trip since COVID. According to the website, the campsite was 400 yards away from the parking lot. In reality, it was more than a mile.

 

We bailed, and found a nearby Airbnb. I would never think to bring a battery-powered Christmas light necklace on a camping trip, but it came in handy when the kids made a fort between their two beds.

 

Other than the misleading website, George L Smith State Park was lovely. The highlight of our trip was kayaking among the cypress tress in the park's Mill Pond.

Spring Break at Magnolia Springs

 

We spent part of spring break at Magnolia Springs State Park. This was the morning view from our cabin's back porch. 

The lake was full of lily pads, fish, and turtles. We even got to see baby alligators, thanks to a park ranger telling us where to look for them.

Hazel came prepared with all the essentials for a fun trip.

We came prepared with Easter treats...

...and eggs to dye.

The small ones are from Millie, our bantam hen.

Hazel attempts to figure out how much longer till we're done with the trail.

Osprey Landing

We spent a long weekend at Lake Oconee with Janet over the summer. This was the lovely view from our back porch.

The house was well-equipped with rafts and kayaks.

Hazel enjoyed zooming up to the dock (or other people) and loudly announcing that she was "coming in hot!"

We paddled out to a post in the middle of the lake where there was an osprey nest, with babies. (And realized where the house's name came from.)

All in all, it was a very happy weekend.

Thanks, Janet!

I see a pattern here...

Stone Mountain, Feb. 2017

 Ragged Mountain, Nov. 2017

 Arabia Mountain, Jan. 2018

Vogel State Park

Last Memorial Day weekend, we went camping at Vogel State Park with some other UUCA families. There was a delightful gaggle of kids.

There was a bit of a hike to get to the campsite, but once there it was beautiful and private -- a great spot for the kids to run and play without any danger of cars or bothering other campers.

Our friend Todd introduced Hazel to the joy of soaking tired feet in a cool creek after a long hike. She approved.

Lucky kids to grow up in this community and this environment!

Tracy Arm Fjord

One of the highlights of our cruise was sailing up the Tracy Arm Fjord. What do you know, a there's a reason fjords are known for being some of the most remarkable landscapes on earth. I could easily repeat the word beautiful and its synonyms for every photo in this post, but I'll try to restrain myself and let the pictures speak for themselves.

We often arranged the seating so that the kids had their backs to the window. At breakfast they were generally more interested in the rare excitement of playing with individual size cereal boxes than in the scenery.

The fjord ended at the Sawyer glacier.

Not actually tire tracks, although the pattern definitely suggested it.

I had no idea there was so much color variation in ice.

This is about all the adults wanted to do for the few hours that we were in sight of the glacier and passing through the fjord.

See all those little black dots on the ice? At first, that's all we noticed...

...but with binoculars we could see that each dot was a seal!

Chilkoot Trail

More than 100 years ago Klondike gold rush miners followed the Chilkoot trail to get from the Alaskan coast to the headwaters of the Yukon river, in British Columbia. Today, the 33-mile trail is maintained by the US and Canadian National Parks Services. We hiked about 2 miles of the trail from it's start in Dyea (an abandoned gold rush town near Skagway).

The forest was beautiful and unbelievably mossy.

Berry season was just starting when we were there. Our guide told us that two of these baneberries on the devil's club bush can kill an adult.

But these watermelon berries are perfectly safe and do in fact taste slightly of watermelon. We definitely checked with the guide before eating any unknown berries!

In addition to letting us know which berries were safe to eat, the guide had all sorts of interesting information about the history and ecology of the area. This tree was the most interesting single fact we heard. When a brown bear wants to mark his territory, he'll rub all over the tree to get his scent on it, and then stretch as high as possible to scratch the tree with the two claws of his longest fingers. Another bear entering the territory can reach up and compare how high his own claws reach. If higher, then the new bear can move in and start encroaching on the territory. If lower, then the new bear knows he needs to keep moving and find somewhere else.

We ended our hike at the Taiya river and took a raft back to our starting point.

Everyone in our group for this particular adventure: Rebecca (Aaron's sister), Sally, Janet (Aaron's mother), Aaron, Juniper, and Hazel.

Hazel was slightly disgruntled about having to wear pink kiddie galoshes instead of the grown-up river boots everyone else got, but she didn't let that diminish her excitement about stomping in the water's edge.

Even through the boots, you could feel how cold the water was. No surprise, given that it's glacier run-off, but still very cold. Also clean, clear, and drinkable.

Kudos to the girls for being great companions on the hike and the float. They were engaged, excited, asked lots of questions, and followed all the safety guidelines. Juniper in particular spent most of the hike away from her family and attached to Mr. Brian, the guide, talking about the forest and her love of nature.

Aaron came equipped with two cameras -- the one around his neck and the one someone else was using to take this photo. (In case my teasing sounds unkind, let the record state that I deeply appreciate the fact that we have all these fantastic photos without any effort on my part.)

It was a relaxing and peaceful float, with stunning views in every direction: snow-capped mountains, forest-covered mountains, glaciers in the distance, trees close up.

No bird in this picture, but this is a bald eagle's nest. We saw lots of them-- in forests, on streetlights, above the garbage dump...

Rebecca's big smile pretty much sums up how we were all feeling on the raft. The 40 minute float was over way too quickly.