Sarasota Children's Garden

We recently took advantage of a local Living Social deal and visited the Sarasota Children's Gardens. It was one of those places that looked interesting, and for under $20 for our whole family to visit for the day (with our Living Social voucher), it was worth checking out.

And I'm so glad that we did! The gardens are full of magical lands that delighted our children's imaginations and made us adults act like kids again for the afternoon.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road...

Before entering the gardens, the kids had an opportunity to visit the costume room and choose costumes to wear during their visit. Ian chose a cowboy vest, while the girls chose a variety of ball gowns and princess dresses.

The entrance to the magical gardens.

Ian exploring the birdbath in the Fairy Garden area. The details in each section are amazing!

The little Simpsonites climbing Fruity Oops Mountain. You can see part of Snuffy in the foreground.
Snuffy is  a way-cool dragon!

Little pig, little pig, let me in...

Watering the flowers in the Butterfly Garden.

Eliza is taking her turn swinging from the rope and dropping into the hay bales in Hobbitville.

The sidewalk through The Land Of Od.
You can see the "castle" that Eliza claimed for her kingdom at the end of this road.

Just one of the fellas that we met in the Monster Garden

All told, we spent about 2-3 hours exploring the gardens, which was just about the right amount of time for our crew. If you visit Sarasota, this is definitely a hidden gem worth exploring. It's a beautiful, magical place where kids can freely explore and imaginations can run wild!

Harpers Ferry, Antietam Battlefield and history come to life

This week we've taken the opportunity to explore the area of West Virginia and Maryland where we've found ourselves for two weeks. The area is rich with American history, namely American Civil War history. I am an unashamed history lover. For as long as I can recall, I have adored history, simply because history tells the story of people. People from recent years and people from long ago. I love to hear people's stories, and history is a perfect outlet to get my fill of stories. I've yet to run out of new stories to hear, or old stories told anew, and there is always more history to uncover.

On Monday, my cousin Tiona and her family came down from the Hagerstown, MD area to join us for a walk through Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. Besides myself, Tiona, her husband Carvey and nephew Trent, we also had our collective 9 children ranging in age from age 7 to 3 weeks with us on our outing. We totally looked like a preschool field trip, only without the rope for the kids to hold onto! As chaotic as it sounds, we all had a great time and really enjoyed getting the cousins all together for the evening.

Mid-week, I loaded up our four kids into the van that I rented for a few days and we ventured north about 20 minutes to Antietam National Battlefield. I allowed only 3 hours for our visit, expecting that to be more than enough time for the kids to have their fill of Civil War battlefield excitement. I underestimated these kids who not only sat through the 27-minute preview film depicting the bloodiest one-day battle in American history, they were on the edge of their seats and pulled me along through every exhibit in the Visitor Center museum. They talked to a park ranger and we found out about the Junior Ranger Program that the National Park System has, where kids fill out workbooks and answer questions about the national park that they are visiting, and once completed they return it to be checked by a ranger and the kids can earn a Junior Ranger certificate, badge, and special surprise. In this case, after visiting each of the stops on the driving tour of the Antietam Battlefield, the kids were gifted a set of Civil War trading cards with photos and facts about key aspects of the Battle of Antietam. Let's just say that we've had a lot of play surrounding battles around our home the past few days!

The next day the kids and I traveled to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy Center in Harpers Ferry, WV to learn about the Appalachian Trail and what it is like for hikers who undertake the journey along the trail. This is at almost the mid-point of the 2,179 mile trail that runs from Maine to Georgia. We even looked up and found a photo of some college friends of mine and Jason's who hiked the A.T. from end to end a few years back. The kids loved seeing that we knew a couple of famous people whose photographs were in a museum! We then proceeded to walk 1/4 of the stretch of the Appalachian Trail that runs through West Virginia. It was pretty cool, but no need to be too impressed. The full length of the A.T. that runs through West Virginia is about 4 miles.

Finally, today Jason and I returned to Harpers Ferry to explore the town more thoroughly. The National Parks Service was also hosting a Yuletide Celebration within the park this weekend, so we had the opportunity to share in some of the mid-19th century holiday traditions such as strolling carolers and seeing the town decorated for Christmas with natural, historically accurate decorations. In the blacksmith shop, one of the blacksmiths struck a pair of iron leaves for our kids, which we are planning to add to our home decor to remember this stop on our journey. Stay tuned for photos as they find their place in our home.

One of my favorite spots in this entire area is in Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, along the Appalachian Trail, where the Shenandoah River meets the Potomac. Granted, this unique place, geographically, lended itself to being the site of the Federal Armory that was the target of John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, which was a spark that helped ignite the American Civil War. (I warned you that I'm a history nerd!) However, it's a beautiful convergence of these two rivers that continues east as the Potomac River toward Washington, D.C.

"The Point"
Where the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers converge along the Appalachian Trail in Harpers Ferry, WV.

Tomorrow, we'll be following the Potomac River into our nation's capital. With Washington, D.C. being just over an hour away, we simply could not leave the region without a taste of this city that I love. We cannot wait to share in the beauty, the history and the wonder of Washington together as a family.

Independence Pass

If you had just worked 13 days in a row, what would you do with your day off?

For me, the answer was hit up a farmers market and then drive up to over 12,000 feet above sea level on a road that vehicles over 35 feet are forbidden.  Toss in a few cliffs, hairpin turns and less than 2 lane road, and you have yourself a day along Independence Pass.

We took an excursion to explore this area, having been told that it is a beautiful drive.  Well, I am all over something like this. Plus, since the people telling us this live here in Colorado--where, in my opinion, every drive is beautiful--I had to take them on their word.  We started cruising through Aspen and quickly realized that there is no clear boundary between the town and where the scenic drive began.  The drive is littered with pull offs, campgrounds, hiking trail heads, and day use areas.  We stopped at a few, either to see the scenery, take a break, or get out and stretch our legs.

This day use area offered a cool stream to play in.  We only got our toes wet.

We continued our climb, stopping at the town of Independence, founded on....you guessed it, July 4th.

Going down the path into town.

Information for you nerd types.

After getting winded from walking up and down the side of a hill at an even higher elevation than we have become used to, we continued our trek to the top.  Soon enough, after a few final switchbacks to get the adrenaline pumping, we made it.

Say it with me, some water flows this way, some that way.  That is why it is a divide.

Yes, I know, we had to pass the Continental Divide to get into western Colorado, but we did not have the time or opportunity to make a deal of it at that point. That, and we crossed it in the middle of a tunnel on our initial drive West. Talk about anticlimactic. But not this time!

It was a beautiful day, sun and clouds.  One thing that I love about Colorado is how you can see the weather approaching and just how bad it is.  While we were up on top, we could see a storm blowing towards us.  We had enough warning and lead time that we were able to almost get back into Aspen before it started to rain on us.

And to try to share the same view/experience, here are a few panorama shots that I put together from the lookout point at the divide.

Concert fun

Every Thursday the town of Snowmass Village holds a free concert.  It has been rained out a few times, but we took the opportunity to head down this past Thursday to check it out.  Many of the people I work with have said that it is a good time (although I think that they like the prices of certain 'adult beverages' compared to what they normally have to pay).

Finding a parking spot was our first hurdle.  Thankfully, since I have been running around town, I knew a few places to look and could park in some reserved lots due to my parking permit for work.  Once we were parked, I took the family on a quick tour of town as we walked to the concert.  They have set up a stage on one of the slopes, so seating is raked uphill.  For our Indianapolis friends, it is like Klipsch Music center, but no covering or seats, just all grass.

We sat towards the back/top of the hill, since we got there after the concert had started and we wanted some room for the kids to play.  As a bonus, there was a gentleman that had chinese yo-yos and some juggling items for kids to play with and a lady with some hoops.  Granted, both were drumming up business, but it was great that they had the activities for kids to do.

View of the stage and hill.

The kids checking things out right after we got there.  Didn't take long for them to get up and run around.

Lydia working on her hooping skills.  The skirt was a good complement.

The whole setup is right next to my job site, so I was able to give perspective to Stephanie about what I am doing and the layout of both the town and the jobsite.  I think one of the biggest realizations for her was how much everything is built into the hill and how much vertical change I go through throughout the day.  So, if you look at the first photo, that is the background that I see every day.

It was a fun outing for all.  We can't wait to do more exploring.