Oh What a Beautiful Morning...

With the torrential rain from Tropical Storm Hanna gone, today is absolutely perfect. Sunny, cool, light breeze. Ahhh. This morning we hit up the "new"Christie's Market on Cross Highway for a test drive. It was great and we're thrilled to have the neighborhood joint back in good condition: yummy breakfast stuff, plenty to drink, a good deli plus a natural foods mini-mart. Now that we know it's worth the trek, we will walk there next week.

Then we cruised by the beach to look for bluefish (no luck) and decided a hike on the trails at Earthplace would be fun. Finn starts school tomorrow and Loch in 2 weeks, so we thought it would be good for them to spend some time "on campus".

We detoured to the farmer's market for some corn, raspberries, squash blossoms (gotta dig up a recipe!), black/blueberry pie and a loaf of bread shaped like a frog!

On the way across town, we passed a fire truck sitting in a parking lot with 3 firemen. So we pulled in, and as usual, the firemen were great - letting the kids sit up front and explaining all the hoses, etc. They were there to witness a 200-motorcycle tribute to Police and Firemen lost on Sept 11th. It would have been a site to see, but the kids were getting rambunctious with the truck's levers and doors, which was our signal to skeedaddle. Finn proclaimed that he wants to be a fireman for Halloween. We'll see if it sticks.

By the time we made it to the trails, it was getting pretty warm and the shade was much appreciated. Keelin played the boss repeating stories she had heard from her teachers over the years. She told us exactly where we'd find frogs along the trail, and by golly, she was right!

Loch wanted to be carried, so he rode on Rob's shoulders for the back half. Then we made it back up to the playground and the birds of prey.

We checked out the eagles, owls, hawks and vultures. If you have never seen a bald eagle up close then it is time for you to visit. I am always amazed at their size - HUGE. Here are Chatty and Cerena - each one of them is about 2.5 ft tall. Stop by one day - you can hike the trails and play on the nice playground for free - or go into the nature museum inside for a small fee. They usually have something going on each weekend...