Bryan Clay's KidFit Clinic, 10/23/10

Ages 7-18 were invited to a free clinic - from 9-2:30 at the UH Clarence T. Ching Athletic Complex.

http://www.bryanclay.com/bio/personal/:

As a result of his tough childhood, Bryan created the Bryan Clay Foundation. Clay has developed a passion for the youth, families, and building authentic community. He counts it an honor and a privilege to inspire kids to make wise decisions, develop good time management skills, stay in school, follow their dreams, and maintain a well-balanced life style.

There he was in the black outfit instructing push ups. The volunteers were the UH Women's Track and Field. Perfect!


Okay, the little one in the back must be resting.

There were 4 stations. It was so endearing to see the youth try their best.

Important: hydrate. The participants were given a draw string bag which included a water bottle. They were also given many water breaks.

As well as a lanyard, the tag had a slot with papers - the volunteers wrote down the participants times on those papers.

This station taught them to jump high.
Notice the extended hand, that was their goal to jump up to.

This was just a sampling of the 30 activities.

Not fair-have to leave tomorrow, 10/11/10

Since Ruth and I will be leaving tomorrow, we wanted to see once again see T and J's new home in progress. The first time was in "Rest and Explore". We walked over with T, J and S. Aren't these trees just beauuutiful?

Got this brick layer through this brick.

From this side looking towards the lake. I enjoyed seeing this persimmon tree,crab boat,
nature,
and this sap exposed from a cut branch of the pine tree.

Later before dinner, we did return and had some pupus and drinks with friends. I was happy to see how my glass of wine created a nice shadow.

It was so much to revisit the Little Red School House. The first time was in "Maryland, yipee"

What were they looking at?




From the Little Red Schoolhouse, this road leads to where T grew up.
Since Erick commented he wanted to see crab cakes, T and J said we need to have lunch at:

Voila! I ate every bite of this delicious "Maryland Jumbo Lump Crab Cake" crabcake with asparagus, shitake mushrooms, cherry tomatoes and lemon dill vinaigrette.
Mason's even had this cool painting in the lady's room. I heard the men's was also cool.

At a friend's home, we again were fortunate to get great photo opportunities.

Isn't this place setting charming?
Inorder to grasp how large this crab was, notice it was about the size of the seat of this chair. OMG!
My last view as we drove through Washington, DC to get to the airport. I thought these street lamps were so colonial. (We left the farm @6:15 am - so sad, Ruth and I certainly did not want to leave.) Thanks again T & J, also T's sister. It was fun having S. at the place.

Mostly shopping and Harvest Hoedown, 10/9-10/10

On Saturday - 10/9, before we got to the shopping outlets, T saw this box turtle on the road and was kind enough to go back, pick it up and put in the woods for its safety. The drivers have developed a keen eye for things on the road. You certainly don't want to hit a deer or any other animal as they dart across. I for one did not see the snake and the opossum to name a few.

On our way to Tapatia's for Mexican dinner, T's sister stopped the car to let me take pics of the deers in the meadow behind these trees. My point and shoot could not get the deers but got this beautiful sunset. T really liked how the sun shown through the leaves.

The next morning - 10/10, Ruth was kind to make us french toast. She made us pancakes the day before with bits of apples, bananas and almonds. Thanks Ruth. I called her "before" and myself "after" since I would wash dishes after.

We are now entering the Harvest Hoedown. It was at Pickering Creek Audubon Center. What is a hoedown? It is basically a celebration for farm families which includes square dancing, blue grass music, country food and lots of fun. This Harvest Hoedown included a lot of activities for kids, a hay ride, nature trail, boat ride, and info about farming.

I took this pic of a pic. These honey combs were created when the bees were forced into this area.
I found out oysters are helpful in filtering water. There was a bowl with oysters in dirty water. I took a picture and later came back & the water was clearer. This contraption rotates when the string attached to cylindrical thing moves in the water.




There were gourds that were hollowed out. I should have taken pictures of the creative pieces made from the gourds. Sorry this is the only one.
What is this? Just add 2 tablespoons of whipping cream in a container, cover and shake for about 5 minutes...

and presto, butter! Later when I met up with my friends, we spread this butter on a warm belgium waffle, they agreed it was yummy.

Long story short, this contraption helps to grind corn.

The wooden structure with the 4 openings at the top is a corn crib.
A corn planter.

My friends went off for a nature hike and wish I had joined them. Now I can see why, Ruth thanks for taking this pic of the pond.

I was a little frustrated because my cell phone was unable to get calls, however when I got to this area I was able to find out T left me 3 voice messages to let me know where they were.
At last, T, J, S, and Ruth arrived by boat.

We even got to do a hay ride.

S was so happy that they were selling "Pumpkin Roll" I had to take this pic.

So farm country, huh?

Blue grass music. They didn't do square dancing but it was fun to just sit on the bales of hay and listen to them.
Going back, I can't get enough of this beauty.

I finally got this pic of 2 deer.

When we got to T's daughter's home, she said just run and get the sunset. Here is my pic.

Ruth got a pic of me taking the above pic.