Visitors since 10/1/2010
The prerequisite for any hotel stay - the swimming pool! Better yet, a swimming pool they have all to themselves, the case here.
I seriously snapped 200 photos of the kids jumping in the pool. This one was my favorite.
We departed the cruise ship this morning, rented a car and drove 4 hours to my parent's winter home near Fort Myers. The kids went swimming right away (even in the unheated pool).
My mother cooked up her usual feast of shrimp, noodles, beef and broccoli (as if we really needed any more food!).
After dinner, we played a game of "Truth or Dare". The kids downloaded this game to the iTouch / iPhone, and it is relatively tame, and some of the dares are downright silly. Case in point - Scott's dare was to wear an item given by each player.
Hence the jewelry, glasses and other items. Sometimes going with "Truth" is just easier.
Our time in Nassau included a Dolphin encounter at the Altantis resort and some time exploring the beach. I'll have the pictures from our Dolphin encounter posted in a separate post.
Again, the sun and super warm temperatures alluded us again, but we still enjoyed the beautiful Cove beach.
The high wind and surf meant no swimming at Cove Beach, but the surf was lower on Paradise beach which allowed us to run in the water.
Back in the Downtown section of Nassau, Erica had her hair braided while Scott and Fay shopped in the straw market.
The rains came in late afternoon, but we didn't mind. Something about being in the Bahamas makes you relax!
In Freeport, we went horse riding through the pine forest, the lush botanical forest and then on to the beach and even in the ocean. I didn't take my camera due to the potential exposure to salt water, subsequently, no pictures. I just enjoyed the ride and scenery.
After horse riding and lunch, we had just a short amount of time to explore Lucaya beach. The cool temperatures meant the beaches were sparsely occupied, but we enjoyed the clear azure water and white sand beach.
As a last parting activity, we watched the horses come down from the meadow this morning. They came booking down the hill, and a couple horses bucked. I stationed myself near a big tree, and I hid behind it as one of the horses spotted me and ran in my direction. [human vs horse - the horse will win]
Ben and Binet rounded up the horses this morning - we think they did a great job.
I haven't dabbled that much in B&W and simply used a preset in PSE. The colored version showed some noise, but with the B&W, I thought it gave the picture an old fashioned feel. [now, to figure out how to convert it to sepia - that's my next trick]
We said goodbye to our gracious hosts - 
Teresa, Bob, Stephanie, Tiffany and Ben.
We drove away, leaving the Culebra range behind, onward through desolate Eastern Colorado and into Kansas.
This month's 12 on 12 is coming to you from Colorado. Not quite the depiction of a "normal" day in our lives, but certainly a fun one.
As usual, I woke early today, and headed out to the woods to find something beautiful to capture in the golden morning light. Of course, this was an easy-easy task. I took pictures of stately Aspen trees, wandering fence lines before coming upon a group of deer, one that was particularly curious of me and my camera:
I ran into Chantal (Ged's wife) and she reminded me that the horses would be coming down from the meadow soon. The horses spend the night in the vast meadow and are brought down to the stables each morning by the wranglers. The group galloping out of the woods is quite a sight:
And into the stable area:
After breakfast, Erica and Scott mounted up for another trail ride - Scott is on Diamond this morning:
Erica is on Lightning:
While Erica and Scott are out riding, Brian and I went out and caught grasshoppers to be used as fishing bait. Neither of us had the guts to put the bugs on the hook, so we kept them in a baggie for Scott to deal with later (yuck!). Brian also played a game of Scrabble Slam with Marta:
The cute prairie dogs were peaking out of their holes to catch some warmth from today's copious sun:
After lunch, Scott tried fishing with those grasshoppers as bait. 
Alas, still no bites.
What to do on a "hot" afternoon (it's almost 90, but really only feels like 75 because of the low humidity)? Play around in Duling Stream:
Erica and Olivia:
Most of the kids strike a silly pose!
And after dinner, the kids divided into teams for a scavenger hunt. The girls from Boston / the Netherlands - Julia, Doris and Eva - won, but everyone had a fun time gathering items like "Horse toe nails", "horse hair" and "dung" - 
Fun stuff!
Note - I took way more than 12 pictures today. To view the rest of my pictures from today, check out my August 12 Flickr set.
Marta and Christine bought the fixings for s'mores so we had a campfire.
Since there has been little rain, Teresa and Bob (who run the Bar NI), set up the fire engine (yes, there is a small one on the property) just in case. Pete and Allison's kids, Bryan and Olivia put out the fire at the end of the night with the big fire hose (the back pressure caused them to flail about at first, then they got help from their parents).
Some pictures from our evening:
Marta and Alex:
Christine and Colleen:
You can't have a campfire without campfire songs - Bob provided the tunes:
And lent Ged a spare guitar:
The music transported me back to my youth, with songs from the Eagles (7 Bridges Road, Take It Easy, Desperado and Hotel California), Crosby, Stills and Nash (Southern Cross) and Pure Prairie League (Amy). We also sang "Wildfire" - an appropriate horse song.
I know the kids didn't know any of the songs, but they were too busy making and eating their s'mores and poking at the fire.
Note - tonight's post will be "backwards", with events of today recounted in reverse order. Why? Just because I feel like it. So there. [Really, it's a technique used in TV, so why not in blog media?]
What a nice treat after our full day - deer hanging out at dusk, right by the Lodge:
So we failed at finding Lost Lake. We know where we took a wrong turn on the hiking trail as we retreated back to the Jeep. The kids decided to call it "Loser Lake".
[But we passed on the information about the hiking trail to the other families visiting the ranch. They turned our failure into success by finding the elusive Lost Lake.]
At the beginning of our hike -
Before the hike, we drove the Jeep for about an hour through winding and treacherous trails. We almost got stuck at one steep pass, but Scott gunned through the rocks. Those Jeeps are amazing 4 wheelers. En route, we passed through The Meadow, where we stopped for a short rest:
When we started out on this afternoon's adventure, the kids were enjoying the Jeep ride (not so much at the end of the day - 3 hours of 4 wheeling through rough terrain gets hard on the body)
We spent the morning getting oriented on the horses (sorry, no pictures). Then Erica and I played various card games while Scott drove to the Picket Wire Store where he picked up some lures. He hoped these guys would be effective with the fish in the pond.
I woke early and attempted to run out to Rt 12 and back. I made it about a half mile before I almost passed out from lack of air. The lungs are not used to the altitude. But it was a glorious morning, nice and crisp at 40degF.
A quick sneak peak from our Colorado adventure. We have limited connectivity, so this may be it until we get back.
The view from the back porch, where I presently sit:
We tried to find the "Lost Lake". Unfortunately, we didn't succeed, but had some fun trying.
See you when we get back!
We drove through St Louis, across Missouri, through Kansas City (stopped for lunch at a nice KC barbecue restaurant) and into Kansas. I thought Kansas would be all flat and boring, but it was quite hilly:
Can you tell it was a gorgeous day? Gorgeous but HOT! Thank goodness for A/C, because by the time we reached Hays, Kansas, the mercury read 103-105 in the shade. The hottest day of the year. 
We ate at Gella's Diner in the Historic Main Street area. I love places like this - converted warehouses with exposed duct work, beams with that cool industrial feel. Beer micro-brewed on the premises (very tasty, too). Open kitchen that begged to be photographed:
So, if you are ever out in Hays, be sure to stop in. (And after Hays, there isn't a whole lot more on I-70 heading west).
A pretty un-eventful travel day home, just the way we like it. Looks like another rainy day in New England, but back in the Mid West, the sun is shining and the corn is high.
I took this picture on the drive home from the airport - with my iPhone. Just seeing what kind of image I could get with it - not too bad, don't you think?
Yeah, vacation is great, but it is good to be home
No, not another post on food! We spent the day in Sandwich, MA, a town on the edge of Cape Cod and thank goodness we didn't choose a town further down on the Cape, because the traffic was terrible.
We ate lunch along the Cape Cod Canal, enjoying the warm breeze and the yummy lobster, clams and fish from the Seafood Shanty in Bourne. I managed to take a group picture of the kids with the Sagamore Bridge (packed with southbound traffic) in the background.
We endured the traffic over the Sagamore bridge into Sandwich to visit the Sandwich Heritage Museum and Gardens. The three main exhibit buildings house antique cars, art collections and a working carousel. These separate buildings are joined by beautiful gardens and woodland paths. The kids probably enjoyed the antique car collection the most. Brian declared his favorite was the vintage Corvette. [What is it about boys that can sense the fastest vehicle in the lot?]
The very kind museum worker took our entire group's picture on the antique climb-all-over me car:
I'm a sucker for unique hood ornaments:
Auntie T's family along the lake:
It was a perfect last day of vacation.
We had planned to drive into Sandwich, perhaps bike the Cape Cod Canal, but ended up going to the movies (Harry Potter - Teresa and her family hadn't seen it yet and we didn't mind seeing it again). Then we cooked the rest of the afternoon - making dumplings and green onion pies.
I've taken plenty of pictures of our dumpling making activities, so today I focused on the green onion pies. We don't always make these savory, flaky flatbreads (because we are always focused on the dumplings), but they are delicious.
Again, the recipe may be found in PeiMei's Volume I Cookbook. [OK, as a side note, I just looked at that link to amazon for the cookbook - wow, $100+ for a used cookbook - maybe I should try to sell mine. Wait - not a chance!].
Basically, you make a simple dough of flour, boiled water and cold water, knead and let it rest. Divide the batch into 6 equal parts and roll out into a thin circle. Brush the circle with cooking oil, sprinkle salt and chopped green onion on top. Then roll up into a tube, as demonstrated here by Auntie Teresa:
Roll the tube into a circle, like a jelly roll:
Then roll this out to 1/4" thick:
Heat about 1T. of oil in a skillet and fry / cook the dough, flipping over once or twice. My mother did all of the cooking.
Cool a little bit, cut into wedges and enjoy!
The process of rolling and forming the pies is very kid-friendly. Erica and Brian both made their own pie, while Zach and Matty helped each other with one pie. The reward - they got to eat the pie they made. These are great snacks / appetizers and helped sustain Teresa and me while we progressed with the dumpling process. No pictures of the dumplings, but if you search for dumplings in the blog, several posts with pictures will pop up.
Happy eating!
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