Vacation Hiking-Foiled By The Damp

On Wednesday of my vacation, we woke up to a rainy day. We did get Brynna out the door and over to her doctor's office for her flu shot (regular flu, not H1N1, which isn't available here yet, but she'll get it when it is), but we didn't want to drive up into the mountains for clouded-in views or a rained-out hike. Instead, we found a break in the weather and went off to the local Audubon Society preserve. Unfortunately, the break wasn't long enough, and it started to rain just as we got out of the car. We retreated to the building, which was a little less entertaining for toddlers than we might have hoped for, and eventually just gave up.

Instead, we went over to our apartment and Dad entertained Brynna while I packed up some more stuff to move to the new house. Brynna has a tremendous fascination with plastic buckles, and she was overjoyed to discover that with a minimum of help, she could work the buckle on Alex's Camelback water-pouch holder. She spent the rest of the week wearing it around, howling if we tried to remove it from where it inevitably came to rest around her waist. And she discovered these handy cymbals while packing up the kitchen:


On Thursday, we headed off to Mount Cardigan. It was a bit of a dreary day again, and after about twenty minutes of walking, Brynna made it clear that she did not want to go hiking, thank you very much. (The final straw may have been the Smartwool socks we had put on her arms to keep her hands warm.) So we turned around, hiked back down, and played in the parking lot and picnic area for awhile. Here's B admiring the fall foliage:


Friday it rained again. Blech. On Saturday, Brynna and I headed down to Connecticut while Dad and Alex headed off to do their piece of AT-In-A-Day. B was clearly inspired by her reintroduction to hiking, as she walked a good part of the way home from the library that afternoon—almost half a mile!—pushing her stroller by hanging onto the basket underneath, and categorically refusing to be put back in the seat. She certainly is determined!