Things to do: July 2008 Archives

One of our recent Eight for Eight hikes took us to Raab Park in North Codorus Township, home of the former York Iron Co. iron mines - and a lot of bats, who hibernate in the old mine adits in the winter.

Besides seeing views like this, of huge drops made from the remains of former quarries, we saw the results of some recent archaeology camps for kids. The stuff they found was pretty neat - pieces of old buildings, old railroad tracks from the railroads that served the mines, all sorts of neat stuff.

It was one of the county parks that I'd never been to, so it was doubly neat. I'd definitely like to go back!

Today marked the last day of my daughter's first summer in the Tennis for Kids program offered around the county. Her group met at West York Area High School and mostly concentrated on the basics - forehand, backhand and serving.

In honor of Sarah's "graduation" from tennis today, she and I headed out to West Manchester Township's little-known Shetter Park, where there is a single court that just happened to be open for us.

Doesn't she look like a future tennis star?

The cool part is that Hubby and I are both recreational players (we both played in high school, and have been known to hit around sporadically since then) - so we're just glad to have someone else to face off against!

Since I happen to know that at least a few of my readers are also pretty stellar photographers, I thought I'd point out that there's still time to enter our 2008 Summer Photo Contest.

Here's one of my favorite shots so far:

"Gobble, Gobble" - Reader Julie says this is a pet Narrangansett turkey who says YAY for vegetarians!

Want to enter yours? Click here to submit your photo. (And here to read the rules.)

Happy snapping. I'll post more of my favorites as the contest deadline nears. I'm in no way an official judge, though, so impress the photo staff, not me!! :)

In our ongoing summer quest, we spent an evening last week up at Pinchot Park, planning to look for the three letterboxes hidden there.

We only got to do two, because it ended up getting dark (boo!), but we had a great time. This time, we brought Big!Fluffy!Dog! (also known as Coby) and let him "hunt" with us. Poor thing. He's very furry, and he got VERY hot and lazy about halfway through, but he was a good sport.

During our second excursion at Pinchot, the letterbox clues indicated we'd pass a rock shaped like a big cube. Never a family to resist a challenge, we (OK, they) climbed on up! (The top of the rock was about even with my shoulders, so I stayed on the ground with the trusty cameraphone to be the recording secretary.)

First, we had hubby plus dog (THAT was an adventure, getting 90+ pounds of dog up there!)

Then, the girl joined in...

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY, EVERYONE!

I'm here at work, so I won't be taking in any of the local fireworks displays, which are mostly still on despite the weather, but if you check any of them out, let me know.