Andrew and I always try to take one trip to Letchworth every year. It's a special place for us -- we've been going there ever since we met in college. In fact, here is the view from where we had our first magical kiss 19 years ago: http://thrivingbabies.com/Images/pinnacle.jpg
Leaf season is late this year and the wind was wild. It was like walking through a ticker tape parade with all of the leaves sailing through the air and the acorns diving from the trees. The hiking was wonderful, even the 127 steps down to the footbridge in the previous photo. http://thrivingbabies.com/Images/arianna&dad.jpg
Arianna developed a fever and slept a lot. She's still a little under the weather. Here she is, asleep in the Sutemi Pack: http://thrivingbabies.com/Images/sutemidad.jpg
She did enjoy seeing the "deers" as she calls them and we even learned quite a bit about composting from an awesome exhibit they had there. She still let us take a few photos of the cute little Dora Halloween dress I made her: http://thrivingbabies.com/Images/hdress2.jpg
We were somewhat disappointed with the Glen Iris restaurant, Caroline's, this year. I ordered a pumpkin cheesecake the night we arrived and it was wafer thin and half frozen. Not exactly what you'd expect for a $7 dessert. Our breakfast omelette had American cheese on it -- eww! Their current chef is no gourmet. I miss the old days.
When we left, there was a huge group of little old ladies in purple dresses and red hats, just like the poem, "When I Grow Old, I Will Wear Purple". They visit the Glen Iris regularly. (Apparently, they don't have many taste buds left.) You can see some of them here: http://thrivingbabies.com/Images/gleniris.jpg
Their fashion sense is still on target, though -- they all adored Arianna's outfit and everyone commented on what a delightful and polite little girl she was. Here's me and the little angel: http://thrivingbabies.com/Images/mom&arianna.jpg
Hope you enjoyed the virtual trip to Letchworth!
Rebecca
P.S. I have an iMac, which makes adding pictures in Blogger impossible. Hence, all the external links. Maybe once a few more people start buying the new TV-like Macs and video iPods, the scales will start to tip in Mac's favor again. . . .