Pumpkin Patch Kids

Today is Columbus Day, that most politically incorrect of American public holidays. To the best of my memory, I don't recall having ever had this day off from school or work, but it's a federal holiday, and all serious ethical and historical objections aside, I am not about to turn down a paid day away from the job. So this morning the three of us got together with one of my orientation group classmates (and fellow student of Mandarin Chinese), Steven, along with his wife and his three very cute daughters Ellie (age 7), Mia (4) and Vivian (18 months). Together, the eight of us checked out Ticonderoga Farms, a leisure farm located in the northern Virginia countryside, best described as a place for kids to run around and have fun, while the parents stand and watch. Except for Steven, whose prowess on the slides was quite impressive. The following are a few snaps of an American autumn:

Amber and Ellie on the hayride. This tractor-drawn ride took us out to the pumpkin patch where we could pick out our free pumpkins (one per paying customer, so perhaps "free" is not the correct adjective to employ here). It culminated with a drive into a small pond that the kids found exciting.

My daughter in the patch with her pumpkin of choice. I don't know what we're going to do with them, other than carve some Jack-o'-lanterns for Halloween. Pumpkin pie would be the natural end result of all those pumpkin guts, but I have no idea how to bake such a thing from scratch. That's why the good lord invented supermarkets with their frozen desserts sections.

The slides were a big hit with the kids (and Steven!). The washing machine and dryer will be working overtime this evening washing out all those dirt stains.

Amber tames the wild cow "Freckles", part of a bouncy, motorized train ride...of sorts.

Amber and Pamela took advantage of the opportunity to feed the chickens and goats.

It should fairly obvious that someone had a good time today, though the last activity above ended in tears upon landing on a badly-placed ankle. Fortunately, a quick trip down the slide put a smile back on someone's face.

Fall was definitely in the air today, while the turkey vultures were in the dead treetops.

We passed by several pumpkin patches on the drive through the countryside from the farm back to I-66. I was reminded of all the weekend leisure farms back in Taiwan, though without all the fall foliage.

Happy Columbus Day!

Great scott

My love affair with Virginia's natural scenery continues unabated. On this cold, wet autumn morning, I drove the short distance to Scott's Run Nature Preserve, just off of I-495 in suburban McLean. This was the first day since coming to the Washington, D.C. area in mid-May that I could see my breath, but the fall colors that greeted me in the parking lot very quickly took my mind off of the chill in the air:

The preserve is 385 acres (156 hectares) of wilderness administered by the Fairfax County Park Authority. It's named after Scott's Run, a stream that starts near the Tyson Corner Shopping Center, and makes its way to the Potomac River. Almost immediately I was swallowed up by the tree cover (which included "sycamore, yellow poplar, chestnut oak, American beech and various pines", according to AMC's 50 Best Day Hikes Near Washington, D.C., my weekend hiking bible):

In the midst of such beauty, it was hard to imagine that this area was slated to be bulldozed in 1970 to make way for yet another suburban housing development. The project was met with resistance from local residents, who ultimately prevailed. No doubt Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum would've considered these folks to have been "socialists":

This part of the country seems to be full of eerie ruins. This chimney is all that remains of the old Burling house, the home of an attorney and socialite who once played host to Washington politicians in the early years of the 20th century:

The trail I was on soon made its way to the banks of the Potomac River. To the left was the 30 foot (9.1 meters)-high waterfall where Scott's Run flows into the Potomac:

On this Columbus Day holiday weekend morning, I was alone with the river, except for some hardy waterfowl and a lone kayaker making his way upstream on the opposite side:

I followed the trail alongside the Potomac, with the river on my left and steep rocky outcroppings to my right:

The route eventually became impassable, forcing me to make my way uphill about a hundred feet (30.5 meters) above the Potomac:

The path continued in an easterly direction as it clung to the hillside, and necessitating a lot of clambering over fallen logs. The Potomac could still be seen through the foliage, and it was evident why Washington's waterway never developed into an artery of commerce and transport, at least not along its upper reaches:

What a four-way intersection looks like in the middle of the woods:

"Hike to the top of a ridge and turn left at a major (read another) four-way intersection, cutting between a large oak to the left and yellow poplar to the right". Which is what I did:

A final look back into the woods before returning to the parking lot:

Today's not-so-vital statistics include a time of approximately 2½ hours, an elevation gain of 710 feet (216 meters) and a distance of about 2.8 miles (4.5 kilometers). Here's hoping that today's walk in the crisp autumn air is a harbinger of many fall hikes to come.

Amber's Autumn Almanac

As the flier so aptly put it, my daughter "enjoy(ed) a day of old-fashioned fun" at the 19th Annual Farm Day held at Cherry Hills Park in downtown Falls Church, Virginia. The many activities included pumpkin painting...:

...pony rides:

...blacksmithing (is this an actual verb?):

...hayrides:

...getting to grind up corn kernels:

...and clambering up stacks of hay:

About the only thing my 女儿 didn't get to do this afternoon was go inside the Cherry Hill Farmhouse, which is the sacrifice one has to make when one hasn't finished eating her snow cone. Dad, however, did get to check out the well-preserved Greek Revival-style framed house that dates from 1845, and came away suitably impressed with this Virginia landmark which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places:

This is the first real fall season for both my wife and me since the time we lived in Yokkaichi 四日市, a city in Mie Prefecture 三重県 in Japan. For Amber, it's her first genuine autumn in the sense of cooler temperatures, grayer skies and grounds littered with leaves "mostly coloured yellow". Festivals such as the one this afternoon evoke scenes of a simpler time, of a more pastoral society, an imagined halcyon past, and a yearning to return to the roots of an idealized America and an era in which people ate homemade shortbread cookies and drank birch beer (and both of which I purchased today at The Local Market). For a six year-old girl too young and too full of energy and enthusiasm to pine for an illusory lost age, it was just a lot of fun.

Mid-Autumn Festival and the zoo redux

Amber rides the Metro

Today is the Mid-Autumn Festival 中秋节, and to celebrate we sat around this evening munching on moon cakes 月饼 while gazing up the harvest moon in the night sky, all the while reciting poetry.

Who am I kidding? No one does that anymore, if in fact they ever did. Certainly in Taiwan, the modern-day custom is to barbeque meat and seafood, sing karaoke カラオケ「卡拉OK」 and set off fireworks, producing so much smoke that the moon can't be observed, were anyone actually to remember to look for it. We made an attempt yesterday evening to observe the Moon Festival Taiwan-style by doing some grilling down in the apartment complex's BBQ pit. This morning we met up with one of my classmates to have some delicious dim sum 点心 at a restaurant in Silver Springs, Maryland. The food was great, but I forgot to take pictures of the dishes, so all I can do is put up a link to the restaurant's website.

The rest of the day following lunch was spent at the National Zoo, our second visit since coming to the Washington, D.C. area at the beginning of summer. This time, we concentrated on seeing the animals that we didn't get around to the first time back in June. My daughter had a great time, and never lacked for energy, something that couldn't be said for her parents. A few of the highlights for Amber:

Posing with a Komodo dragon

Seeing an octopus and some nautilus up close and personal

Being eyed by a tiger and a pair of cheetahs

Beaver shot

We had seen the pandas on our previous visit, and considering the recent death of a baby cub at the zoo, it was probably for the best that we skipped the panda house this time. The visitor's center did have some live camera shots:

Our Americanized Mid-Autumn Festival celebration finished up with a hamburger and shrimp creole dinner while sitting outdoors across the street from the Woodley Park-Zoo Metro station: