Hiking in Harriman

Today we went for a hike up in Harriman. We decided to do this hike, which includes waterfalls and a view of the New York City skyline.

Baila was playing cute in the Kelty pack:

We kept hiking and reached the creek after 0.4 miles or so:

We encountered a set of small waterfalls a bit father up the trail. I took some slow-shutter pictures while everyone else continued on:

As I finished up taking pictures, it started raining a little and the sky got dark. I met the group coming back down the trail. We decided to go home due to the weather.

On the way down, I saw this little plant growing out of a tree stump:

Overall, we hiked 1 to 1.5 miles. Mechel walked the whole way!

Van Saun Park and Zoo

Since Mom and Dad are visiting for Passover, we decided to go to Van Saun Park. Trish and I took Mechel there back in September '03 and August '04.

There weren't many people there when we got there, probably because it looked like rain was eminent. We started out by riding the train around the Zoo. Mechel really enjoyed the ride, and afterwards he watched the train go by as we entered the Zoo.

The "Zoo" is quite small, but was pretty nice. I'm not sure how the rest of our party felt about it, because I went into picture-taking mode pretty quickly (two of the pictures can be clicked to get a larger view):

After that, it was on to the carousel:

We then walked over to the Pony Ride, and I took some group shots:

Finally, we went to the playground:

All in all, quite the day!

The maiden voyage

We took the boat out on the water for the first time today. Since I haven't build a mast and sail for it yet, we stopped in Haverstraw and bought a pair of oars.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the boat on the water. The first run was with Mechel and Dad and I. We went from the kayak launch to the sunken barge. North is upper right in this arial photo:

After we came back, I took Trish out briefly. The tide was going out, and the wind was blowing in the same direction, so I had to keep paddling just to stay in the same place.

Here are some shots I took after we finished boating:

Spring has sprung!

Our Magnolia: