Jess had made a tasty strata as the centerpiece of a yummy breakfast buffet. Thereafter the 10 of us headed for a nearly abandoned nature trail running for about a mile from the farm, through the woods and ending at an elementary school with 2 neat playgrounds. The intent of this hike was not to find Jungle-Jims for the kids but to participate in 'geocaching'. You may know that that is the term for a modern version of a treasure hunt...GPS units should help you find strategically hidden boxes, jars or other containers holding silly trinkets. Alas, we never did locate the small bottle hidden 'near a tree stump next to a tall maple'...the forest in which this trail was located had a very large number of tree stumps and an even larger number of tall maple trees. In the end, then, the playgrounds were the "discovery" on this outing.
Undaunted, Ryan wanted to push on to other locations boasting of hidden treasures. The young Kleinbergs and Maya stayed on the farm while the rest of us drove to a nearby state park; as it turns out the farm and the park are both within five minutes of Ginna and Ed's country house...they had left on Friday for a European vacation, however. En route to the park a tired Teddy fell asleep so I opted to stay with him -- he really needed that snooze -- while the others set out in their quest for hidden treasures. (Members of the unstructured geocaching community hide these containers on public properties and then post coordinates and other hints on a dedicated Internet site; one needs to decipher the clues to learn the coordinates, then use GPS equipment to get into the approximate area. If you find the cache, you're expected to replace the trinket with something you've brought along for that purpose and then to update the site with data about "the latest find".) Two treasures were said to be in our part of the park but only one was located and that only after Ryan abandoned the group for an exhaustive search in the wilderness; after an hour they all returned triumphant but Ryan had the most exuberant air.
As if on cue, Teddy then woke up.
We returned to the farm for some playtime for the kids and wine and cheese for the rest of us. The farm has herds of goats, lots of fowl, a few cows (and pigs?) and garden after garden of veggies. We enjoyed some of the artisanal cheeses and salamis courtesy of the on-site livestock. Jess had developed a time-table for the weekend to give some structure to our activities and surprisingly we got to a nearby (large) diner just about 4 p.m. as she had hoped. There we enjoyed Teddy's birthday dinner -- your choice from the menu -- and ice cream and cake (the latter a farm-themed delight which Jess had brought from Troy). We said our goodbyes in the parking lot and I was home by 7, in plenty of time to watch the ND-Miami game. Joel and Beth had about a two-hour drive.
Somewhere during these fun-filled hours we managed to spend time with the chickens and goats and watch Teddy's wide-eyed excitement as he opened birthday presents back in the cottage. He's 3, you know, and proud to tell that fact to anyone who asks.
So that's my side of the story...perhaps you'll get a different version -- or at least blog photos -- from Jess and Ryan.
Teddy at Sprout Creek Farm.
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