Hiking at Montalvo Arts Center

By -
Friends of ours invited us along on a very fun hike this Saturday, and we had a great time!

Mara was in the Ergo Baby carrier at first after having fallen asleep on the 11min drive from our place. She was, of course, wearing two bibs at the time - this is our new fashion statement: overlapping bibs, the more the merrier.

We found a crazy tall tree that has even crazier seed stalks, sharp as knives:


After about 10 minutes of comfortably riding on daddy, Mara wanted to join in the hike herself so we let her down. A lot of the paths here have a slope to one side, so it took some chaperoning skill to not be invasive yet ensure she is safe at all times.

But we found a lot of cool things along the way! Like these tree mushrooms:

And this pretty clover

A small creek you have to walk through to continue the hike:


And a very fun bridge that took about 15 minutes of exploration in all directions:



In the end, Mara got exhausted and went for another short cat nap on Daddy, right before we found this tree full of birdhouses. We felt like bringing one or two more because you can still see some of the bark:



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bye Bye 2021, Welcome 2022!

By -
Image
It's a feeling shared by many: quite glad 2021 is over and behind us. This post will rehash some marking events during this long year, both ones we loved and ones we never want to go through ever again, if we could have a say. For those latter ones, we are deeply grateful for the friends and family who were by our side, offering kind words and support when it was needed most, whether from close or far. We started the year with Grandma Tammy still staying with us for several months, during our COVID-19 self-imposed isolation. She brought our family twice as much joy and peace, as conversations exploded in many more combinations than when Greg and I are the only adults around. Fae gained a whole extra year of learnings, just by being around all that, and is now speaking like a four year old at the age of two. For the first part of the year, our friend Chandni taught Mara and Gaius througho
Read more

But I Will Still Need Your Money

By -
Image
In the past 6 months we've travelled over 27,000 miles, if we were to add up all of our trips with the kids. That's more than the Earth's circumference of 24,901 mi, so we could technically say we travelled around the world. On one of the last trips, our two seasoned travelers Mara and Gaius were so self sufficient: they knew how to handle the security line, and even carried all the luggage in the airport. Elena: Do you guys need us anymore? You carry your own luggage, and Mara already knows how to give the tickets to the airport people. Maybe next time you could just go on your own without us. What do you think? Mara: But I will still need your money. Way to be pragmatic; I guess parents are still good for something. Here's some highlights from our trips (non-chronological):  Seattle Zoo, USA  Space Needle, Seattle, USA Chisinau Airport,  Moldova  Bucovina Monasteries, Romania Palace of Culture, Iasi, Romania - with Andrei!
Read more

Giant Fig Tree - Largest in North America

By -
Image
In Santa Barbara, California, thrives a giant. In fact, it is the largest fig tree in North America , the Moreton Bay Fig Tree. Yes, a Fig Tree - with actual figs strewn about, although now with the drought they were not so juicy.  You can lean on its roots, climb up on its trunk till where the branches spread out, or hide between its ridges. A great hide-and-seek spot for both kids and adults.  Here's our family playing between its giant roots; scroll to the bottom to get an idea of the actual scale, which is hard to comprehend. Giant. Two ladies shyly making an acquaintance with the giant.  Here's an interesting thing we noticed about nowadays toddlers: they seem to take amazingness as a common day-to-day thing. Maybe it's because we, the parents, strive to always show them things we find outstanding, so a zebra becomes common. Or maybe they simply enjoy the world at level 100, regardless of whether it's a random leaf in the yard, or a world-uniqu
Read more