When Gas Works For Fun

It's been a pretty cool and wet spring even by northwest standards, so when the forecast called for partly sunny and 65, I was determined to get outside. A few friends and I were recently talking about doing some kite flying at Gas Works Park, so I sent out an email to my usual cohorts. I got a few responses so it was on.

Gas Works Park is a defunct refinery that's been cleaned up and turned into a public space. There isn't a proper playground but there is a sand box, a grassy hill, old machinery, a picnic area, a beach, lots of grass, and a beautiful view of the Seattle skyline.

The little Smittys get bored of riding on the Big Dummy but their friends jump at the opportunity to ride on a family bike.

The wind was a bit gusty for consistent kite flying but we did manage to get the fairy kite up a couple times before we put it away for another day with better kite wind.

And of course no trip to a park with a grassy hill would be complete without rolling down the hill.

Jam Con... Strawberry Freezer Style

While recently having a discussion with my bro-in-law about baking I revealed that the family Smitty doesn't have a food processor and must do all our chopping by hand. Our conversation ended and I thought nothing of my Luddite-esq confession until a few days later an unanticipated package arrived on our porch. We opened it to find a food processor attachment for our Bosch mixer. Strawberries are cheap right now, so we picked up a few pounds to inaugurate the new appliance by making strawberry freezer jam.

For the sake of letting the little Smittys participate more we had them pre-cut the strawberries before we put them in the food processor.
As always, the kiddos jumped at the opportunity to operate an appliance.

I think we may have over processed the strawberries. The directions on the pectin packet said to crush the fruit but ours were more pulverized. Regardless of our overzealous use of the chopper, it made a potent and sweet smelling bowl of mush.

We probably weren't the most efficient machine at getting the jam into the jars but we had a good time doing it, and the clean-up was easy enough.

Ta-da!

Perhaps french toast tomorrow morning would be an appropriate way to celebrate. And maybe the morning after that too.

Tulip Traffic Tie-up

The Family Smitty took a trip to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival this past weekend. The nice weather brought out the masses and the freeway was reduced to stop-and-go a few miles before we got to Mount Vernon. Bringing the bikes gave us the freedom to get off the freeway, park the car, and pedal the rest of the way into town and across the river to the land of tulips.

This was our first time at the tulip festival. The fields are impressive but I was more surprised by how few fields there were. For some reason I thought the tulips would go for miles rather than be isolated into a half dozen fields each a mile or 2 apart.

Most of our riding was on the shoulder of paved roads but we got off the blacktop onto less crowded and more quiet dirt lanes for a couple brief stretches.

We started talking to a guy who had the same bike as Mrs. Smitty. We were doing the same route in opposite directions so we each shared a bit of info about fields and road conditions ahead. He offered to snap a family portrait of the the Smitty clan. We don't have many pics with all of us together. Few things say "family" like matching helmets.

I didn't see it in any of the other fields, but for some reason the fields of yellow tulips were speckled with the occasional red loner.

It was an excellent family friendly outing. The bikes made it so much more accessible and relaxing than if we had tried to do it by car.

When 48F is "nice"

The official start of Spring is just around the corner, and the weather this weekend was like a bugler blowing reveille. The mercury didn't quite get up to 50F but the sun was most alluring. I should have been working on a freelance job but a family bike ride sounded more fun. We donned our mittens + helmets and hit the trail.

We often cross this bridge. The kids like to stop here and watch traffic go under them.

We've been working on teaching the kids safe riding habits like staying right and stopping at intersections. We're also trying to get M to transition to a pedal bike 'cause he's getting too big for his balance bike.

Perhaps we should also be working on generally paying attention.

There's a small grassy area that the kids like to stop and play at. It's actually some sort of storm-water containment/settling pond thing that often has mud that the kids like to stomp around in. Today it was too dry for mud-stomping so we played a few rounds of "stop and go".

We stopped at the grocery store on the way home and loaded the kids and their bikes on the family bike. This was the first time I got to use my trailer hitch.

Back in the Saddle

As a kid and young adult I was very into bicycles. I spent 7 years of my adult life car-free and always had a quiver of 2-wheeled pedal-powered contraptions. Sometime in my mid-20s I abandoned all that for a more car-centered transportation lifestyle. When my kids' learned to ride, I re-discovered the magic of pedal power. About 6-months ago the family Smitty got a bike trailer and elevated our riding from recreational to transportational. We still have a car and use it on a regular basis but opt to pedal when distance, weather and the nature of the errand permit. This has been relatively easy through the spring and summer months. We'll see how the peddling goes through the winter.

For whatever reason I rarely bring the camera on our outings anymore. I often regret that decision once we're out. This past week we had a few days of stellar weather and I thought to bring the camera... before we left the house. I'm glad I did 'cause I got some great footage of the kids riding their bikes on the ramps at the skate park.

Middle Forked SnoSmittys

About dinnertime last night I decided that we were gonna get onto a trail today. I put an open invitation on facebook and got a few nibbles but by this morning the guest list was whittled down to us Smittys + 3 (M, D and S). We all piled into the dad wagon and set off for the Middle Fork Snoqualmie River. We got to the trailhead without incident. Lake Dorothy Road was it’s usual pot-holed self. It wasn't anything the dad wagon couldn’t handle with a little careful maneuvering.

I was curious to drive a bit further up the road to check out the repairs on the automobile bridge over the Taylor River but S the dog was getting really excited and needed to run. There were 2 cars already in the lot when we pulled in. Not a bad crowd considering how crowded this trail can get. We took our time as we began down the trail. The footbridge across the Middle Fork is very impressive but is sorely lacking in the guardrail department. It would be very easy for a curious kid to slip between the wires and fall down to the river. We got across without incident.

I was tempted to go right to check out the Rainy Creek Pools but we decided to stay on the main trail and go left. We only made it a few hundred yards up the trail when we spied a sandy/ pebbly beach. It was nearing lunchtime so we made our way down to the beach and took off our packs.The buffet of snacks came out and I heated some water on the stove. M turned me onto a new trail snack… Bacon and Brie. The bacon was left over from breakfast and we just sliced pieces of Brie onto it. The flavors and textures complimented each other. It was definitely an idea to file away for future use.

We sat for a while and enjoyed our snacks and hot cocoa while contemplating how one might ascend the south face of Garfield Mtn which was looming something close to 4000ft above us. A few rocks and sticks were thrown into the river. Sam went for a dip but hurriedly returned to shore when she noticed she was rapidly being swept downstream. Eventually it was time to go so we packed up and made the 10-minute (at kid pace) trek back to the car.

On the way home we cruised through the town of Snoqualmie to see the trains and made a quick stop at the falls. We were home with time to spare before kids needed to be picked up after school.

King of the Lord Hill and a beaver pond

Haven’t taken the kids out for a blog worthy adventure in a while. We’ve had a few days of crystal clear weather and even though we didn’t take full advantage, we did get out a little.

Our first excursion was to Carkeek Park. I normally wouldn’t mention Carkeek ‘cause we go there with some regularity, but it was such a beautiful day that I brought the camera and took a few pics.

The real adventure was to Lord Hill Regional Park between Monroe and Snohomish. Lord Hill has been on my radar since I’ve been doing kid hikes… about 3 years. For some reason or another it always got put off for a different destination. Today it finally made got to the top of the list, so off we went.

We only hiked 1 mile (2-miles round trip - out and back) of the 10 or so miles of trail in the park, but we saw some impressive stumps, a few bridges, and lots of frozen leaves. Fortunately the kiddos can find adventure in little things.

Our destination was Beaver Lake. It’s more like a series of terraced grassy ponds created by a network of beaver dams. Not too impressive as far as scenery goes but definitely an interesting feat of engineering by the beavers. I was so proud that Anza walked the whole way by herself and Mojave walked about ¾ the distance on his own. On the drive home we pulled off the Hwy to watch some skydivers on their descent. All of a sudden one of them starts spinning wildly. He/she looked like a weight being swung in circles on the end of a string. It was scary even to watch. They were getting alarmingly close to the ground. I was certain we were going to witness a disaster. Then just as suddenly as the spin began, the person stopped spinning and made a graceful landing. As terrifying as it was to watch there was an element of beauty to it.

The Golden State Says Crazy

We somehow landed stand-by tickets to go visit family and friends in southern California. Having never flown stand-by we were concerned that we’d get bumped to a later flight and end up having to hang around the airport all day. We arrived early and got our seat assignments on the plane we wanted without incident. The kids did great on the 2-hour flight. Our checked bag was already going around the carousel by the time we got to baggage claim and grandma was waiting for us outside. Mt Baldy stood proud above us as we made our way toward Cajon Pass. Mrs Smitty and I got a little nostalgic as we drove over the PCT crossing under I-15.

We had a relatively quiet Friday in Barstow before more family would come for the weekend. Trains fascinate the kids, so we walked down to the train station to get a closer look. We checked out the Route 66 and railroad museums but the kids were most interested to explore the locomotives and cabooses in the yard.

On the walk back to the house we found a preying mantis. The cousins had a great time playing and getting to know each other over the weekend. After a couple days with family we made our way down to Orange County to visit our old stomping grounds. Our friend's D&S put us up in their guest room.

We weren’t planning to go to Disneyland but D (who works for Disney) offered to sign us in for an afternoon. We jumped on it. The kids were scared on most of the rides but had a great time anyways. The highlight for Anza was seeing Mary Poppins. We were able to borrow a few sand toys for our outing to the beach. The kids loved playing in the sand and were especially interested in the ebb and flow of the waterline as the waves rolled in. The week went so quickly, and we were suddenly on an airplane headed home.