Vacation, part 2

I am sitting here in my hotel room in Decatur, Georgia, having arrived early for a business meeting and a training seminar. I am meeting with our book jobber rep in a bit and we're supposed to go see the Annie Liebovitz exhibit at the High Museum of Art and go over our library's approval plan and take care of some other business and go somewhere for dinner. Tomorrow I am attending an all-day Solinet Institute class on the future of Technical Services. Right this second, I am getting ready to take a short nap, as I've been awake since 3:15 am (6 am flights are evil). Decatur is a cute little town. It doesn't seem as much suburban as it seems like an old small southern town smooshed next to Atlanta that has been gentrified and Bobo-i-fied. I passed several Starbucks and local coffee joints as I walked to the hotel from the Marta, and there's this sort of atmosphere of "I used to be bohemian in college, but what can I say- I was tired of starving and the 120K offer was too tempting, but I still like to hang out in coffee shops and brew pubs and ethnic restaurants to pretend like I'm still young and anti-corporate life. Yeah, that kind of sounds like Redmond and me, minus my 120 K offer, so I am aware that the goddess of irony is getting ready to smack me on the head.

As promised, here are some more vacation pics... If you didn't yet see the last entry, "Vacation, part 1", then make sure you scroll down to the last entry after you are done with this one. Goodness, I am issuing commands to our visitors! Sorry about that!

I also have a couple of short films, which I will post later this week...

So, first of all, for those who asked, Sadie is back to her normal, toddler-on-steroids self. Whatever she had, it passed through very quickly and we're wondering if we might have just waited it out at the mountains. However, it's hard to be somewhere so remote and have no idea what's wrong with a small child who doesn't have a sufficient vocabulary to really explain what's hurting. Ah well...

These pictures are from our Saturday visit to the Museum of Life and Science in Durham. I think I have posted pictures several times already from this museum, but it's interesting to me to follow how each visit, she interacts more with the exhibits and animals.

Redmond carrying Sadie around.

Checking out the tropical flowers in the Butterfly House.
I just realized that there are no actual butterflies in our pictures of the butterfly house. Oops!
Sadie peers at psychedelic neon frogs and her own reflection.
Said psychedelic frogs. There were blue and red ones as well. Pretty cool!
Ah, the Sound Garden. The cacophony of dozens of toddlers and children all banging on drums and bells. Occasionally, a grownup who actually plays drums strolls by and can't help displaying his or her chops.
It's really only fun to play if someone is watching...
Sadie may have a future ahead as a bell dinger...
Sadie loved the giant sandbox.

And... we're back over at the bells, but we have absconded with the sand bucket.
Sadie did NOT want to leave the museum.

Vacation, part 1

We're back from our first vacation of the summer! We stayed in a mountain cabin between the towns of Galax and Independence, Virginia. The cabin was very rustic and simple and had great views of and access to the New River.

We explored the area, took a swim in the river, and visited nearby Grayson Highlands State Park twice. We visited the park on Monday, and again on Tuesday when Mom arrived for a short visit. Grayson Highlands is one of the most scenic stretches of mountain scenery on the east coast, and the hike from Massie Gap up the Rhododendron Gap trail to the AT is one of my favorite hikes, hands down. It even trumps some of our hikes we've taken out West. I have some pictures below.

Unfortunately, Sadie became ill around Tuesday afternoon and was so miserable that night that we decided to come home early on Wednesday. She was screaming and crying all evening and slept very little Tuesday night. Nor did we. I had never seen her suffer such pain. When we returned, we drove straight to the pediatrician. It turns out, though she was initially being treated for Lyme Disease (yes, I know!) she had some kind of enterovirus with splitting headaches. We had no idea what was going on and staying just wasn't an option. By Friday night, though, she seemed to be improving, so we took her to the Museum of Life and Science in Durham on Saturday. I'll post pictures in this entry of the mountains and will post another entry of our day out at the museum.

First, here's a front view of our mountain cabin. A co-worker owns the place and she rents it at a ridiculously reasonable rate of $200 a week. Contact me if you want more info.

Here's a back view.
And here's the New River from the back of the property... There's a very steep trail down to the river, but you can also walk down the road a quarter of the mile and access the river that way.
Sadie, sipping on OJ in her jammies...

Here is a view of the beginning of the hike at Grayson Highlands from the trailhead. No, the trail doesn't look particularly steep or difficult at first. And it really isn't horrible, but the first half mile or so is pretty much steep uphill.
Sadie casts a dubious glance at the camera. And no, I don't normally pair a mint green top with a pink, orange and yellow bottom. Someone just decided to get her shirt dirty, and that's what I had in my bag.

One of the many mountain views from the grassy slope...

We were nuts to bring this jogging stroller. We finally hid it in some brush and carried Sadie up the trail. She was a real trooper, actually hiking a good bit with us.
Daddy and Sadie peer at the vista.

Interesting rock formations abound on this hike... There are many rockclimbing opportunities, but I'm a bit of a chicken when I'm carrying a child.
The baby bunny was very cooperative...
Sadie had a wonderful time...
More Dad-daughter vista-bonding....
Sadie is cute when she drinks from a water bottle....
There are wild ponies that live at Massie Gap. Well, wild is sort of an exaggeration. These ponies seem to be anything BUT wild. Two of them tried to sniff Sadie in her stroller.

Sadie loved running through the grass...

Picking flowers with Daddy... Yes, I guess it's fairly clear that I did most of the picture taking on this trip...
More pictures from Tuesday, the following day. Somehow I missed getting a picture of Mom. Sorry, Mom! These were the last few moments before Sadie began to have the horrific headaches.


More pictures to come in the next entry....

July 4th Baby Blowout!

I hope all of you, my gentle readers, had a great 4th of July! Having a holiday right smack in the middle of a work week is somewhat Kafka-esque. I stumbled in my office this morning trying to remember exactly where I left off with all my projects on Tuesday.

Missy, Brian and Lila came over for July 4th. Lila and Sadie had a dip in the new kiddie pool and we grilled corn, burgers and dogs. Dinner was yummy and the wee ones enjoyed the water.

Here's a film of Sadie splashing like crazy. She is a total water freak. This is exactly what she does to the dog's water bowl, only this is a much larger scale...



Lila wasn't too sure about the pool at first.

Soon, however, she perked up and enjoyed the cool, refreshing water.
Sadie came over to investigate this new "pool toy".
Sadie, in between jumping in and out of the pool with reckless abandon...
Whee!
Still Life with Babies and Beach Ball...
Lila chews on Pirate Uniqua....
Sadie was VERY fascinated with Lila... She kept kissing and hugging her... And trying to swipe her toys...
Hand holding...

Here is Sadie literally lifting Lila. She kept trying to pick her up, as if she were a little doll...
Splashing....
I'm really running out of captions here... Another pool picture...
Lila having some dinner...
Lila, just hanging out between the sofa cushions...
I think this picture is from early this week.. Sadie was wearing Daddy's Crocs. She actually attempts to walk in them...
Last weekend, we saw this doe and her speckled fawns in a nearby Chapel Hill neighborhood. We managed to get one fawn in the picture- the other was hiding...
Next week is our mountains trip. Hopefully, we'll have many pictures to share.