Chasing Waterfalls at Patapsco Park

We are busy soaking up the last bits of summer here. I know everyone says it, but time is so crazy right now. It simultaneously feels like it was just March and also like it's always been summer. 

We've been doing our best to explore the cool towns and gorgeous parks around here. This week we explored Patapsco Valley and its Cascade Falls. We've heard great things about this park from others, and the pictures were enough to convince us to give it ago.

Apparently everyone else also had the same idea this weekend; we had a hard time getting into the park. First, the Google directions led us to a private driveway, then, when we finally found the correct entrance, the park ranger had just closed the park because it reached capacity. Thankfully, there was another entrance on the other side of the park that was still open. We raced to that entrance and crossed our fingers it would still be open when we got there. Thankfully, it was!

This entrance was a mile from the falls and the swinging bridge, whereas the other entrance was right next to them. Thankfully, though the terrain was pretty rough, the kids did amazing. I'm a week behind in our country week reports (asynchronous learning, right?), but this week we're in Tonga. We pretended that we were exploring one of the 170 islands that make up Tonga as we hiked through the dense jungle and swam in the waterfall and river. 

It took us an hour and a half to hike one mile, but honestly, I'm so impressed with the kids. There were no complaints, only joy. To say Zahara is not a walker is an understatement, so this was a big deal for us.

The walk was totally worth it. We got to the waterfall and were able to swim and take some pictures. The water was pretty chilly, but we all had a good time. 

After chilling in the waterfall for a bit, we climbed down and across the swinging bridge and down to the beach. 

This park used to house the Orange Grove Flour Mill, but it was destroyed in fire in 1905. Today, red bricks from the mill are scattered around the beach and in the river. The kids loved building structures with these bricks and the rocks they found in the shallow, warm waters.

The hike back took us around an hour, and the kids mostly did well. There were a few well-timed bribes of lychee fruit (which is apparently Asher's new favorite fruit). I'd highly recommend this park to anyone who wants a lovely day out. Have you been? Where else around Maryland should we explore? Leave me a comment below!

Argentina Week!

This week we headed to South America to explore Argentina. Once again, this was a terrific food week, and one that Zahara had been looking forward to for a while. She's a huge steak lover, so she was pumped to learn that beef plays such an important role in Argentina's past and present.

Culture

One of the coolest things we learned about this week is La Cueva de las Manos (the Cave of Hands). This cave art from 10,000 years ago is as beautiful as it is mysterious. The art's purpose, artist, and method are all unknown, though there are some strong hypotheses about the last point. Since all the paintings are of outlines of left hands, archaeologists believe that the artists held a pipe or blow dart filled with paint in their right hands and made impressions of their left hands. I really wanted to try this with the kids, but we didn't get to it this week. Maybe another time.

Source

We also watched a few videos to learn more about Argentina. We watched this one on Argentinian music, this one on geography, and this one had a few interesting facts, like the national sport of Argentina. What do you think it is? I would have guessed football (soccer), but it's not. It's pato! It's like a mix of polo and basketball. Crazy!

Source

Food

As I said, we ate well this week. Here was our menu: empanadas with chimichurri, steak, fungazetta, and alfajores.

I was intimidated to make empanadas from scratch, but actually, these were really easy. I used non-dairy milk and margarine to make it kosher. These will absolutely go into our normal rotation. The kids couldn't get enough. Just as a note, I made half the dough and filling and it only made 8 empanadas. I might even double the recipe next time and freeze some.

Yum. Steak. What else is there to say? So good. 

Fungazetta was another dish that sounded weird, but I can't wait to have again. It's more like a focaccia or flatbread than pizza, but it is SO tasty. We went for a more traditional style and used raw onions rather than caramelized. I highly recommend doing that too. It cooks in the oven so it doesn't have a raw taste, but it provides a great counterbalance to all the cheese.

We searched high and low for alfajores, a traditional Argentinian sweet. We finally found some at a local restaurant (La Limena). I personally didn't care for these much. They are made with dulce de leche, which I don't love. I think it also has a slight fennel taste--again, not a fan of licorice. But Dan and the kids liked them.

I'm already dreaming about making the empanadas and fungazetta again, but there's no time to waste. On to Spain!

Read about our other country weeks here.

Australia Week!

This week I turned to Facebook to see where we should go next. I got some fantastic recommendations that we'll be implementing over the next few weeks. First up, Australia!

Crafts/Culture

You'll notice that I've combined crafts and culture in this update. Though I had fun plans for a craft (making a paper koala), we just didn't get to it this week. Spoiler alert: we didn't get to crafts in the following couple of weeks either. We did, however, explore some fun cultural aspects of Australia. 

One really fun thing we did was a gift from Dan's sister Amy--Highlights Top Secret Adventure Book Club. Each kit is set in a new country and centers around mystery that you have to solve: what was taken, who took it, and where did they hide it. Zahara spent hours on this activity book. I was really impressed with the quality of the puzzles and how much we learned. 

We also stretched the theme a little bit this week and went for a sail on a pirate ship! There's a company called Urban Pirates that hosts 90-minute cruises in Baltimore. I was impressed how the company has adapted to covid to make this adventure safe and fun. They limited the number of people on board and roped off sections for each family; we actually had half the ship to ourselves. It's cheesy and expensive, but the kids had a great time and it was a nice change of scenery. Tip: search for a Groupon before buying. We saved a ton of money that way!

My friend Kathleen is living in Australia right now and working at a tourism office. She had an adorable little co-worker for a while--a joey! She sent us some pictures of her time with Chestnut. How jealous are you that she got to hang out with this tiny baby kangaroo??

We also watched a few videos on YouTube. I just searched Australia for kids and found some fun clips on wild animals and the Great Barrier Reef. We paired that with pictures from Dan's and my trip to Australia in 2010. We had such an incredible time there. You can read more about it here. 

Food

Here's what was on our menu for the week: Almond-crusted barramundi, Tim Tams, Sausage Rolls (just BBQ sausage--no pictures), chicko rolls, meat pie, and Vegemite. We missed out on making fairy bread (white bread with sprinkles!), but will have to do that next time.

I'm not kidding when I say Tim Tams might be my favorite candy now. I've never had them before, but they're chocolate covered biscuits (the British kind, not the Southern U.S. kind). They're perfectly flaky, crunchy, sweet, chocolate-y. Loved them!

I'd never heard of chicko rolls before, but apparently these are a favorite late-night snack. It's so strange, but Dan and I agreed that these taste a lot like chicken pot pie. There aren't many overlapping ingredients between those two dishes, so I'm not sure why that's the flavor profile, but we loved these. I'll definitely have them again.

In Australia you'll often find hand-pies, but we made this one family-style. This meat pie was delicious. We thought we'd have leftovers, but everyone demanded seconds. 

Nope. I did NOT enjoy Vegemite. Yes, I only used a tiny amount on top of a large amount of butter. I still didn't like it. I get that it's an acquired taste, but it is one that I will not be acquiring.

This week reminded me how amazing Australia is. I hope we get to go back one day soon. Next week, Argentina!

See our other country weeks here.

Fruit Picking!

This weekend we had a fun outing where we went fruit picking at a farm near us called Larriland.

It was the perfect day to go since it was finally under 90 degrees. Still humid as heck, but at least it wasn't too hot. 

Larriland has a lot of different crops you can pick, but we chose peaches, blueberries, and blackberries. Zahara went here last year with her camp, but for the rest of us, this was our first time picking these particular crops. We usually pick apples in the fall, and we've picked raspberries from our garden in England. I was expecting the peaches to be like apple picking and the berries to be like the raspberry experience. But they were different. 

The peaches were on short trees that were full of ripe fruit. But unlike apple picking, the ripe peaches don't just fall off when you twist them. You still have to give a slight yank to get them off. The way you tell if a peach is ripe is if it is uniformly pink/red, versus yellow. The side with the dimple, or cheek, will get red first, but you need to check the other side for ripeness.

I'm not usually a huge fan of blackberries. I find them a bit tart. Zahara really wanted to pick blackberries, but Asher and I wanted to pick blueberries, so we decided to split up. Dan and Z went to one field, and Ash and I went to the other. It was actually really nice to get a little alone time with Asher. He's so funny and interesting at this age. He never stops talking, which can sometimes be a lot, but I'm grateful he wants to share his thoughts with me.

Blueberry picking was not nearly as thorny as raspberry picking. I was surprised that the berry bushes were at eye level, so I didn't need to bend over to pick, but berries were low enough that Asher could easily reach as well. The berries come off very easily, and you're looking for berries that are uniformly blue. These are so sweet! I can't wait to snack on these all week.

Zahara and Dan had fun with the blackberry patch too. Dan said he was surprised that they weren't very thorny either. And these fruit are enormous! They are much sweeter than I've had before, so they must be perfectly ripe.

We'll be turning the peaches into ice cream and eating the other fruits as is. I'll let you know how it turns out!

India Week!

This week we explored India! This is another country where we barely made a dent in the huge and diverse culture. Still, it was fun getting a taste of India.

Crafts

Since the beginning of covid, I've been keeping a stash of recyclables that I can use for various art projects. It's been really handy having cardboard boxes, egg cartons, and toilet paper rolls to use each week. This week, we made elephant masks out of old cereal boxes and construction paper. I just free-handed some shapes based off this tutorial. I only managed to get a picture of Asher's, but Zahara colored hers and decked the elephant crown out with jewels. 

Culture

I don't think this is the kind of culture that we typically aim for, but Dan and I have been watching Indian Matchmaking on Netflix. This series has garnered a lot of attention--both positive and negative. For me, it's been interesting to get an inside look at a culture with which I am not very familiar. Have you seen it? What do you think about it?

We also found a YouTube compilation video of top Bollywood songs. We learned a bit about Bollywood and enjoyed listening to the songs. Of course, we then had to learn some of the moves. Asher and I had a blast hopping and jumping and learning new steps to this tutorial.

As we often do, we found some NatGeo videos on India. We watched videos on Taj Mahal, Holi, and even an Indian Safari.

Food

There's an amazing Indian restaurant near us, so we knew we'd be ordering in a good portion of our week's food. Up until now, we've only had vegetarian Indian food. This week was a good opportunity to try some of the delicious-sounding meat meals. We made rogan josh and tika masala. We ordered in naan, egg biryani, vegetable chettinad, paneer butter masala, mixed vegetable curry, mango lassi, and channa masala.

All of the food was excellent, but I really loved the paneer butter masala and the channa masala. The Lassi was so refreshing and delicious.

The rogan josh was outstanding. We used lamb and it was perfectly tender and flavorful. I'd absolutely make this again. The tika masala was very...boring. In retrospect, this wasn't the best representation of India, since the dish didn't even originate there. It's a British interpretation of Indian cuisine. I found it pretty bland and far too tomato-y. We did tweak the recipe to make it non-dairy (dairy-free yogurt and coconut cream), but I still think even without those modifications there would have been many better options for us. Oh well, next time.

India was fun, but now we're off to Australia!

See our other country weeks here.

House Updates: Summer 2020

It's been a while since I've updated the blog on the status of our house. Now that we're spending a lot more time at home, we have grown to appreciate our spaces even more. I feel so lucky every day to wake up in this house. It truly is my dream house.

Since our last update, we've made a few tweaks to make the house even more functional and beautiful. Though I don't believe spaces are ever "done," I do think that we're probably not making any more big changes for a while. That's not to say I might not grab a bucket of paint and change up the kids' rooms, but we're probably done buying big furniture for now. Here's what we've done recently:

Office

This was one of the biggest changes we made, and I couldn't be happier with the results. This room is now one of my favorite in the house and it feels like such a great expression of us. 

A lot of hard work went into this update, and I'm thankful for my handy husband and my great neighbor (hey Marcus!) who provided most of the tools for this job.

We started with a builder-grade box. Not bad, lots of natural light, but nothing special. The room did have a great chair rail which gave us a starting point for this makeover. We painted the top of the room navy (Sherwin Williams Indigo Batik) and the bottom the same glossy white as the chair rail. Then Dan built picture moulding and added them around the bottom of the room. I think it gives such depth to an otherwise plain space.

We got these gold picture frames from Target after Sherry Petersik repeatedly mentioned them on her blog. They are gorgeous in person! I am absolutely obsessed with the finish. We framed pictures from a calendar my friend gave me (hi Kristiina!). They are all beautiful watercolors of towns in North Yorkshire where we used to live. 

Mudroom

We are lucky enough to have this small room off the garage. Since we moved in nearly three years ago this has been a workhorse, but it hasn't always functioned very well. We installed some hooks and a basket for shoes and it worked OK. But we dreamed about a gorgeous built-in unit that had hooks for bags and coats, a space for shoes, a bench, and cubbies for storage. We even had a carpenter come out and give us a quote, but it was nearly $7,000! We looked at IKEA and Big Box stores to see if we could hack a built-in, but nothing worked quite right.

Then, Dan found a unit at Ballard Design that was almost exactly what we wanted. It fit the room great and would add a ton of function to the space. And it was significantly under the custom quote. A little paint from my two best helpers plus this new unit make the room work so much better!

Landscaping

A while back, Dan and I hired a landscape architect to plot a design for our yard. She designed our neighbors' yard and we love the way it turned out. It was fun to chat with her about color preferences, types of flowers and plants we love, the amount of maintenance we want to put in, and all the other things that go into designing a yard. 

Using her designs, we bought four new trees for the backyard, including my favorite, an October Glory Maple. The kids named the trees: Flames (the maple), Bazinga, Bazuzah, and Joy (the Cryptomeria). 

At the beginning of Covid, Dan had a lot of extra energy and time. Sidenote: remember those early days? He decided to tackle the front garden on his own. It turned out so much better than either of us could have imagined! We have peonies, catmint, dianthus, coriopsis, alium, a crepe myrtle, and a Japanese maple. So much color! The pictures don't do it justice. I love watching the flowers bloom and the leaves change. Every few weeks it feels like there's a new surprise in our yard.

Patio

Speaking of outdoor spaces, we finally bit the bullet and purchased outdoor seating for the downstairs patio. We've been researching pieces for years and finally came to the conclusion that we're willing to pay more for quality. It was a saga (big delays, lost items, cancellations), but we finally got our gorgeous chairs, table, and couch from Pottery Barn. 

I don't love the price (even on sale), but it's clear how well made these pieces are. They're very comfortable and fit our space perfectly. I can see many happy days and nights out here for years to come.

Phew! We've been busy here. And I didn't even mention that we added insulation to the garage to make Zahara's room more temperate, and we got a new dining room rug, dining room chairs, and a living room chandelier.  We continue to make this place a reflection of us, one room at a time. Now all I need is for this pandemic to end so I can have you all over for a drink! 

See our other house updates here.