With spring well underway here in Seattle, new life is popping up everywhere from the flowering trees to the blooms lining the sidewalks and edges. Cherry Blossoms, magnolias, rhododendrons, daffodils, hyacinth, and more recently even tulips are making an appearance. Leaves are sprouting all over adding some much needed color to the dull backdrop of the winter months.
Great Outdoors Food: Fuel for Your Next Adventure
We usually straddle our meals for before and after our adventures on the trail and just stick to snacking for a little energy boost. However, seeing some of my fellow hikers’ delicious looking fare and enjoying that downtime in nature, I was curious to see how a full serving of food would impact our hiking experience.
Great Outdoors Food gave us a chance to ease into the idea of packing a trail lunch.
Hiking with Toddlers: 10 Tips to Keep Everyone Happy on the Trail
We’ve come to the point where we can’t go to (or even drive past) any natural area without Bergen (2.5 years old) yelling out in question and excitement: “HIKE???”.
He knows what he likes and that’s getting to be outside on the trail exploring. Whether it’s among the towering cedar trees at home in the Pacific Northwest or the giant saguaro cactus waving from the dusty Arizona desert, on the trail seems to be where he’s most content.
Travel Snapshots: Poolside at Phoenix’ J.W. Marriott Desert Ridge Resort
Do you ever feel the post-travel blues? You get back from a trip, and just feel down in the dumps, wishing you were back exploring that fantastic place with perfect weather? Yes? What’s more, the feeling doubles when the day after you return home, it’s your birthday!
Instead of having a pity-party though, I’m reminiscing.
Good Eats in Bow-Edison, Washington
What kind of compromises to do you make while traveling?
To make travel with a child more simple and convenient, we’ll stay in a more central location even when we’d really rather stay off the beaten path a bit. At times we splurge on our destination, when just flying to the place is a huge expense, and then stick to a tight budget on food. Other times, when we know the accommodations are going to expensive, we’ll make sure that all of our activities and excursions are free or very low cost.
While we love to experience a locale’s culture through their food, we’d don’t often overdo it in this category of travel. We specifically seek out ways to save on our meals. However our trip to Skagit County Washington’s Bow-Edison was different. This agricultural community that we’d only been able to enjoy in quick passing was calling us to take part in their farm-to-table, slow food, eat local (insert newfangled foodie term here) movement. And by going the budget route of staying in a state park cabin, we had some room for a little indulging!
Grow Exploring Book Review: An Outdoor Spin on ABCs and 123s
Bergen (2.5 years old) is in the early stage of being very interested in letters and numbers. On signs and placards at his level with letters big enough for his little fingers to point to, he’ll search out his favorites, and while he’s no where near being able to identify all 26 letters, his curiosity and desire to make connections is helping him make progress.
He also loves counting things. Whether it’s the slices of orange on his plate or the pine cones and rocks he finds in the park, he’s pointing at objects and numbering them in his own little way (accuracy is not a concern of his at this point).