Washington Valley Park - West

We recently made our way back to Washington Valley Park in Bridgewater, New Jersey, to check out the western portion of the park and the reservoir.


You can get a trail map by visiting the Somerset County Park Commission website here.

We took the White Trail to the Middle Brook Trail and followed along the reservoir to the end of the trail at the dam.  This trail was pretty flat, but narrow at times.

White Trail

Reservoir

Middle Brook Trail

After we made our way back to the parking lot, we went a little ways along the Red Trail.  The Red Trail was rockier than the White Trail, with some slight ups and downs.  Our total hike was 2.5 miles.

Red Trail

We found the western portion of Washington Valley Park to be more crowded than the eastern portion.  There were many people fishing along the shores of the reservoir, and several mountain bikers passed us.  I'm looking forward to coming back and discovering more of the Red and White Trails and trying out the Blue Trail!

Guest Blogger: Baby Shower Books

Today I have a guest blogger - my sister, Michele!  She had a baby in January (our adorable niece, Luna), so she is the perfect person to talk about books to bring to a baby shower!

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One of my earliest childhood memories is of our parents taking us to Toys R Us and letting us pick out something special.  My sister and I immediately bee lined to the back of the store where they hid the books.  We didn’t want Barbies, Cabbage Patch Dolls, or My Little Pony (wow, really dated myself there!).  Books.  Specifically, Ann M. Martin’s Baby-sitters Club series.  We must have read every single one and to this day we are still avid readers.  

Now I’m a new mom to a six month old baby girl and I hope to instill a love of reading in her as well.  Heck, she is even named after my husband’s favorite literary character (thanks, JK Rowling).  Some of my most cherished baby shower gifts were the books we received from family and friends.  Sure, the clothes were adorable and the diapers useful, but she will grow up with these books.  We read one or two each morning before starting our day and down the road they will be her excuse to not go to bed “just yet” while we cuddle together.  I would categorize these books in three ways and hopefully give you some ideas for the next baby shower you attend.

Traditional

This group includes the most popular children’s books – Goodnight Moon, anything by Dr. Suess, etc.  The mommy-to-be will probably get many of these, even duplicates, so consider this when making your selection.  My sister trumped this by turning a copy of Oh, The Places You’ll Go into a guestbook where attendees could write messages to us and baby.  Now, not only is it a book we will read together, it is a treasure chest of beautiful sentiments we can share forever.

 

 

Personal Touches

One of my daughter’s favorite books right now is Hello, Vermont, a gift from her grandparents.  It is special because we ski and hike with them every year in Vermont and we cannot wait to take the baby there for her to experience it.  Finding a book that relates to the parents’ hobbies or favorite places will help them share those things with the child as they grow up.

Themed books can also be very special.  Be creative – they do not need to be the overtly personalized kind of books that put the baby’s actual name on each page.  Maybe a book that alludes to the time of year the baby will be born, or a holiday near their birthday.  Here Comes the Easter Cat is a hysterical book that we bought our daughter to celebrate her first Easter, but it would be very cute for a spring baby shower or due date.  Kitten’s First Full Moon and Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me were just two of the books we received from friends of ours, in a package that included choices all centered around the moon and night.  It was a very special wink and a nod to our little Luna.  

Out of the Box

Books don’t always need to have a lot of words to draw you in.  Books that challenge a child to think and play can be just as meaningful.  What a Wonderful World and You Are My Sunshine are just what they sound like – illustrated versions of the songs they reference.  They absolutely can be read as regular books, but they can also be sung along to by you and your child.

One of the coolest books we received at our baby shower was Press Here.  This kind of book allows the child to play along, following instructions and seeing the results with each turn of the page.  It’s not necessarily a baby book, but our daughter will grow with it.  And I have to admit, I was mesmerized by it! 

Any book you choose will be treasured by the mommy-to-be, as it will be allow her to share special moments with her little one.  But, this is also an opportunity for family and friends to be creative with their selections.  Have fun! 

"Waiting on" Wednesday: Shelter of Leaves

"Waiting on" Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and spotlights upcoming releases we're eagerly anticipating!

Shelter of Leaves

Lenore H. Gay

Expected publication: August 9, 2016

On Memorial Day, a series of bomb explosions rips through major cities in the US. Her apartment in ruins, Sabine flees DC and begins a grueling journey on foot that brings her to West Virginia, where she finds safety at an abandoned farmhouse with other refugees. They settle in—growing food, hunting scarce game, and foraging when they can.

For Sabine, family is a vague memory—she can't even remember her last name. Without an identity, she hides; although thirty-five, she pretends to be twenty-eight, even to the refugee she falls in love with. But in time, she begins to recall family—a mother, a father, and a brother—and with her recovered memories comes a longing to find them. Are they alive, surviving, in hiding as she is? Even in harrowing times, Sabine's desires to belong and to be loved pull her away from shelter—and into danger. - from Goodreads

Review: The Leaving

The Leaving

Tara Altebrando

June 7, 2016

Six were taken. Eleven years later, five come back--with no idea of where they've been.

Eleven years ago, six kindergarteners went missing without a trace. After all that time, the people left behind moved on, or tried to.

Until today. Today five of those kids return. They're sixteen, and they are . . . fine. Scarlett comes home and finds a mom she barely recognizes, and doesn't really recognize the person she's supposed to be, either. But she thinks she remembers Lucas. Lucas remembers Scarlett, too, except they're entirely unable to recall where they've been or what happened to them. Neither of them remember the sixth victim, Max. He doesn't come back. Everyone wants answers. Most of all Max's sister Avery, who needs to find her brother--dead or alive--and isn't buying this whole memory-loss story. - from Goodreads

I've been eagerly waiting for this book to come out for a couple months - the cover is so creepy, and the synopsis drew me in even more.  The story begins with the five teenagers being released and covers the two weeks immediately following their return as they try to adjust to their "new" lives while trying to remember what happened to them.

The book is told from the points of view of three characters - Lucas and Scarlett, both kidnapping victims, and Avery, the sister of another boy who was taken.  I liked seeing both sides of the story, those taken and those left behind.  Scarlett's chapters often feature interesting formatting, like words printed in the shape of a circle, which reinforces how confused she was after returning.

Lucas and Scarlett desperately want to know why they were taken, where they've been for the past 11 years, and why they were released.  They realize they have some random partial memories and skills they acquired growing up, and they use these, plus clues they believe they left for themselves, to conduct their own investigation.  The book moved along so quickly that I had to keep reminding myself to slow down and really take it all in.  When the true reason behind the kidnapping was finally revealed, I was surprised, but the more I thought about it, the more I liked it.  I felt the explanation was actually kind of plausible, considering the world we live in, and it made sense.

The writing and the book sometimes seemed simplistic at times, and I could have done without the love triangle between Scarlett, Lucas, and Avery.  Avery often times seemed both obsessed and childish - not my favorite character.  However, I thought the book was engaging and suspenseful and also displayed some really interesting family dynamics.

4 stars - Gripping read.  For those who love a good mystery!

Taughannock Falls State Park

On our recent trip to the Finger Lakes Region of New York, we visited Taughannock Falls State Park.


For a trail map and directions, visit the New York State Parks website here.  There are fees to get into the New York State Parks, but you only have to pay for one park each day, as long as you keep your receipt.  We had visited Watkins Glen State Park that morning, so we didn't have to pay to get into Taughannock Falls State Park.

The Parks website will let you know which trails are open each day - we should have checked it before the 1/2 hour drive to the park, because when we got there, we found out that the Gorge Trail leading to the huge waterfall was closed!  Kinda disappointing.  We walked around for a bit at the shore of Cayuga Lake and then drove up to the falls overlook area.  From here you get spectacular views of Taughannock Falls.

Cayuga Lake

Taughannock Falls from the overlook

It was getting late in the afternoon, but we were still able to get a short walk in.  The overlook is on the North Rim Trail, so we took this trail west to the bridge overlooking the Upper Falls and then went a short distance on the South Rim Trail.  The hike was approximately 1.5 miles total.  The area we were on was relatively flat, but if you start at the Rim Trail beginnings, I imagine the climb would be a lot steeper.

North Rim Trail

 

There are really amazing views of the gorge from the South Rim Trail.  If we ever found ourselves in the area again, we would definitely re-visit this park.

"Waiting on" Wednesday: Dessert First

"Waiting on" Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and spotlights upcoming releases we're eagerly anticipating!

Dessert First

Dean Gloster

Expected publication: September 2, 2016

Kat is the big sister and, as a bone-marrow match, the only hope for saving her little brother, Beep, whose leukemia has relapsed for the second time. In the face of her family's tragedy, Kat has been the problem-solver cheerleader, so now she can't tell anyone, even the boy she loves, that it's all been an act. When even her heroic effort to save Beep fails, so does Kat's irreverent sense of humor, and she spirals downward, until help comes from an unlikely space. - from Goodreads

Top Ten Tuesday: Books Set Outside the United States

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  This week's topic is books set outside the United States; this was a hard list for me to narrow down, because a lot of the books I read take place in other countries, particularly England!  Here are just some of my favorites:

1. Sleeping Arrangements (Madeleine Wickham):  A story about two families staying in the same vacation home in Spain.
2. The Secret Keeper (Kate Morton):  A woman tries to make sense of her mother's mysterious past in this novel set in England.
3. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett):  An epic read about the construction of a cathedral in  England during the Middle Ages.
4. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon):  An English woman time travels to Scotland circa 1743.
5. The Nightingale (Kristin Hannah):  A story about two sisters and their struggles to survive in France during WWII.
6. Me Before You (JoJo Moyes):  Sweet and heartbreaking story about a woman caring for a disabled man, set in England.
7. Into Thin Air (Jon Krakauer):  Thrilling true story about the 1996 disaster on Mt. Everest.
8. The Husband's Secret (Liane Moriarty):  A woman finds out a devastating secret about her husband in this story set in Australia.
9. A Fatal Grace (Louise Penny): A murder mystery set in Quebec, Canada.
10. The Boticelli Secret (Marina Fiorato):  A woman finds herself in danger after posing for Boticelli's "Primavera" painting, in this story set in 15th-century Italy.