Yesterday evening, Hubby, Sarah and I took Coby the dog for a LONG walk on the rail trail.
We parked at Brillhart Station and headed two miles to the Howard Tunnel to find our next letterbox (this was No. 6), then hiked back.
What a walk! Even the dog was beat by the end. Here are Coby and Sarah at the tunnel (halfway point).
The good news is, while walking, we ran into my doctor and a friend, also walking. So next time he says I should exercise more... Hahaha!
Sorry for the sparse posting this week - if you're a reader of our print edition, you've probably noticed it looks a little different, and I'm spending a little more time than usual working on it to make sure it looks as nice as can be.
But I wanted to take a minute and invite you all to some fun stuff going on this weekend, including some places my family expects to be out and about.
First up is Codorus Summer Blast at Codorus State Park outside Hanover. It started today and continues tomorrow and Sunday. We're planning to head out and spend the day at the park tomorrow (weather permitting), not only to check out the event but also to find the two letterboxes hidden at that park. Multi-tasking, yay!
(Interesting side note: You know where I found out about this event? On a placemat in McDonald's. Yep!)
Second event, courtesy of my friend Nina and delivered via text message this week, is a note about a quarter auction at the Springetts Fire Hall next to Home
Depot on Saturday, to benefit York's Habitat for Humanity. Doors open at 6 p.m., cost is $3 at the door.
Habitat, which is also holding a 5K run/walk tomorrow starting at 8:30 a.m. on Allen Lane in Dover, is a great organization, and quarter auctions are a ton of fun, so I'd really encourage you to head out if you're free!
Of course, if you've been following the ol' blog here for a while, you'll remember our family's quest last summer for all 30 "letterboxes" in the "Catch the Activity Bug" summer library program.
Yes, we found all 30, and WOW, was it a great way to spend the summer.
This year, the program continues again, with the kids being asked to make rubbings from 30 "creativity stations" instead of collecting ink stamps. (If you've got kids in your life - I really encourage you to take part; visit goyork.org and your library for details.)
So far, we've found our first three - one Wednesday at Farquhar Park in York, where we also found tons of ducks and geese, a beautiful heron and what we think might have been a baby hawk or vulture - and two Saturday at our favorite place, Pinchot State Park.
Here's a shot that Hubby took of Sarah and I on "Pinchot's Rocks," a formation along one of the trails.
And here's Hubby's own blog post about our adventures so far. I was so happy; I think it was the first time I made HIS blog!
We're looking forward to many more hikes this summer. In fact, by the time you read this, we might have found even more!
Did you all miss me last week? I'm back. I had been sick. Feeling much better now, though.
I've got sooo many e-mails and comments to get caught up on, and I've got lots of pictures to show off. I did get those off the camera and onto the computer today, so I'll start with some of those.
Back on April 5, Hubby, Girl and I took The Dog to Pinchot Park.
Here he is hangin' partway out the window:
We took a hike and played toss-back-and-forth with a football as we walked. After strolling for about half an hour, we had wandered from one parking area to the next, and at this one, there's a little "peninsula" that looks out over the lake, so we sat there and took some photos.
Chris took this one of me:
Then I took this one of them!
Yes, today is Earth Day.
The cause is a little closer to my heart this year than in some years previous, because of our family's litter pickup project from earlier this spring.
Besides making our community just a nicer-looking place, the litter-pickup efforts have another benefit, which I was reminded of in an e-mail I got recently from the York County West Nile Virus Program Coordinator, Thomas Smith.
As part of Earth Day, the e-mail release said, you're invited to participate in the Great American Cleanup of Pennsylvania. Why? Because organizing and participating in a neighborhood or community cleanup is the most effective method to eliminate mosquitoes.
It goes on to say that York County is now home to 27 different species of mosquitoes (eww!). The most common types breed predominately in artificial water reservoirs created by humans.
Those can be anything from a bottle cap to a swimming pool, or tires, buckets, tarps and roadside trash.
Here's a scary fact: One bucket or tire in someone's backyard can breed hundreds of mosquitoes a year.
Anyway, if you are willing to help clean up at least your yard or a surrounding area, you might help prevent West Nile - of which there's been a human case in York County every year since 2002.
Want to know what you should tackle specifically? Read on. And take a look at the photos in this entry, which are examples of things you DON'T want to have!
All of the third-graders at Norman A. Trimmer Elementary this year had to do two hours of community service, preferably with their families.
Many of the kids in our neighborhood took the fundraising route - making snack mix or brownies and selling them in baggies, door to door. (Which was yummy, and which we decided to partake of several times!)
Sarah, though, wanted to do something a little different. Since we're such big fans of the county's parks, as evidenced by our many summer hikes, we talked to her and came up with the idea of picking up litter in the parks.
You wouldn't believe what we found! Lots of socks. Some condom wrappers - eww! An abandoned fishing tackle box (pictured below) at Pinchot Park in Warrington Township.
Also, enough empty soda bottles and soda bottle lids - and a few full soda and water bottles - to keep the recycling center busy for a while.
The bag below was collected in about 20 minutes at Dunedin Park in West Manchester Township.
On behalf of my daughter, myself, Hubby and all those who use the parks - BE NICE! PICK UP YOUR LITTER (or someone's else's, if you see it.) If my little girl can do it, so can you!
As if the wet basement weren't bad enough, of course it was rainy late last week and over the weekend. So, in honor of it being the Monday after all that rain, I thought I'd show you how I spent Friday morning.
I ended up going up to Pinchot Park in a steady drizzle, sitting in my car overlooking the lake and reading a book for a while, then getting out and going wandering around, both in silence and listening to my iPod, for about an hour.
It really wasn't a bad way to spend a morning. Because of the weather, the park was almost empty. And I've been in a kind of blue mood lately, and it helped to take the time to be "alone with my thoughts," as it were.
See, don't I look pensive and introspective? :-)
Well, it's official; our Keystone Activity Zone Kids summer challenge to find 30 letterboxes hidden in various parks around the county is over - and we got them all!!
The picture above was taken in late July or early August, by Hubby, when Sarah, he and I found the 20th in our letterbox quest. I believe this was at Kain Park, near Lake Redman.
And this one was from our very last letterbox, in Rocky Ridge out in Springettsbury Township. This one was a HIKE AND A HALF. But we did it - and the girl was so proud!
All in all, I can't say enough about this way-fun summer activity. I hope the libraries and the parks get together to do it again next year.
