The weekend that was

Saturday night, I saw Hedda Gabler. Great show. The acting was quite good, including Kris as the lead and greenman as the Judge. After the show, we played Texas Hold 'Em. I won one of the games which felt good. I was on a bad streak for a while and I feel like I'm getting my groove back. I felt in control last night for the first time in a while. My raises and bluffs were working, I was getting some good cards, and I was able to read some of the other people well enough to win some chips. We played a second game and I went all in relatively early on not the best cards because I needed to get some sleep. As expected, I lost and was able to head home and collapse into bed. I needed the sleep because Sharon wanted to take the kids to a Pancake Breakfast Sunday morning at the Indian Creek Nature Center. It was part of Maple Syrup fest. Now I like sleeping in on the weekends. All right, I like sleeping in every day, but the only days I have a chance to do that are the weekends. And after playing cards til 3 am, I was not looking forward to an early morning pancake breakfast. I have rarely found tasty pancakes at one of those things. Still, we got moving in the morning and by the time we arrived, I was feeling mostly awake. (Sharon drove.)

The surprises started early. For one thing, the place is beautiful. I love the outdoors. There are lots of trails to follow and we planned on taking a walk after breakfast. Second surprise - the pancakes were tasty! The syrup was about as good as it could get. After the pancakes, we watched a tapping a tree demonstration. Rachel helped tap it. I learned that sap is clear when it comes out of the tree! I had no idea. I just assumed it was brown like the finished product. Rachel had a lot of fun running from tree to tree finding all the bags of sap. Afterward, we took our walk along the trail. I have a baby backpack which Rachel loved to ride in when she was a baby.



Sami, however, asserted her independence and made it very clear she was not riding in that contraption on Daddy's back. She was very Mommy-centric that day, so Sharon carried her. It was a really nice walk. At one point, I climbed this hill which whetted my appetite for this year's Appalachian Trail hike. Overall, it was a great day and served to remind me how lucky I am to have a wonderful wife and two great kids.