First Day of School, 2021-22

School has started, and FIVE DAYS PER WEEK.

This is very exciting and deserves capital letters since Edith hasn't been in a school building five days a week since early March 2020. So almost a year and a half. Atticus never has, since he was only in half-day preschool four days per week at the time.

As you may remember, both kids had online school when classes began last fall. In February, school switched to hybrid -- two days at school, followed by three days at home. Only half of the students were in the building at a time. It was painful, but we made it through.

Now all of the students are at school, and they are there a full day and a full week. They still wear masks, but I think they consider that a small price to pay in order to see their friends and have classes in person. Today will be only the fourth day at school, and I don't think it has gotten old yet.

10 Days in the Southwest

At the Grand Canyon

Traveling in the time of Covid -- it wasn't what I expected two months ago when I booked a trip to Albuquerque, the Grand Canyon and Los Angeles. Cases were down, down, down, and restrictions where being lifted. But all of a sudden the Delta variant ramped up, and I was second-guessing everything.

But still we went. Paul and I are fully vaccinated, we all had the coronavirus last November and we packed at least twice as many masks as we needed. Even better, we were outside for the vast majority of the trip.

It really felt like we took three very distinct vacations in our 10 days out of town. Each leg of the trip was so very different than the others -- the desert, one of the world's great wonders and a center of abject commercialism. Plus we drove some 1,300 miles.

In addition to the sights and sites, we all visited new states: two for Paul and I (New Mexico and California) and five for the kids (those two, plus Arizona, Nevada and Colorado -- the latter thanks to a layover). I'm now at 47 states, Paul's at 45, Edith's at 32 and Atticus has visited 30.

I'll be posting several blog posts about the different things we saw and did, interspersed with new posts about what's going on with us here in Columbus. (School starts this week! Crap Swap is next week!) Enjoy.

A few "preview" pictures -- you'll likely see them all on
future blog posts, and I'll explain them there!

Edith the Archer

 

Edith took an archery class in the spring and enjoyed it so much that we got her a bow of her own. It hasn't been used as much as anticipated this summer, but we did manage to visit the archery range at Scioto Grove Metro Park.

The range has your typical targets for practice, but the park also has a 3D archery course with life-size foam animals. The animals are placed along a special marked trail to make them easy to find. That doesn't make them easy to hit! And since the animals are placed near grasses, slopes and trees, it can be a bit challenging to find that stray arrow that missed the target. (We managed to located them all, however.)

Edith had fun, and we probably would have stayed longer had it not been so hot. She managed to catch some archery during the Olympic coverage, so I say she should aim for 2032! 

Visiting Springfield

I worked in downtown Springfield, Ohio, for four years -- before kids, before New York and even for 6 weeks before we were married! It was the home of my first full-time job out of college. I still write about Springfield-based people, businesses and events regularly, and a few weeks ago I took some pictures around town, too.

Some of my favorite donuts in the world.

Zipline at the Park

It's been on my bucket list all summer: Visit one of the Columbus metro parks that has a zipline.

From what I understand, there are three of them, but the one at Blendon Woods Metro Park sounded the best. Long, high and it even goes over a small stream. Let's do it!

So one cool afternoon in July, I finally took the kids and followed the signs to the natural playground at Blendon Woods Metro Park. To get to the zipline, we followed a trail down a hill and the up a log to find a swing attached to a rope. You aren't attached or protected in any other way, so hang on tight!

They did, and smiles soon followed. And then more trips. I even got a few turns myself!

Edith at the top of the zipline.

Atticus (in yellow shirt) at the bottom of the zipline.

Atticus walking up the log (steps cut out!) to get to the zipline.

The worst part is manually pulling a rope over and over to bring the seat back up to the top, but even that wasn't too difficult. We chose a good time to visit -- there were a few visitors there when we arrived who showed us how to do it, but they soon left. The kids rode it down too many times to count before additional visitors arrived and we headed to the ropes.

The ropes were up another hill and swung out into the forest brush. These I did *not* try, but the kids had fun! The kids also liked following the path to a small creek, although I think next time I will bring extra clothes and shoes. Luckily they didn't get too dirty.

A definite win for this family -- the kids wanted to visit again the very next day! We didn't, but hopefully we'll be back soon.