SUMMER!!!

My love of the summer has been well documented on these virtual pages. This summer things are a little different with a newborn, as it somewhat precludes us from doing certain things, at least as one big group.

The only problem with this weekend was figuring out what we could do a) in the oppressive heat b)that avoided the crowds on the 4th of July.
Basically it eliminated anything water related.

Luckily, I was on the web on Friday, and thanks to the lovely G6 we were inspired!. Blueberry picking!

It really wasn't a beat the heat activity, but it was a quick activity that gave us time to come home, make muffins (thanks again, G6!)and then go swimming. Really, had it not been July 4th we would have saved this activity for the nine days, but it worked today. We opted not to head in the direction of all those mountain goers, (next week's bane), and found a place in Jersey under an hour away. Really when you think blueberries, you should be thinking New Jersey.

We stayed true to form and took the directions off the website as a backup to the GPS. These directions were so good, they were almost as good as asking a friend. They used landmarks, and mentioned things the GPS didn't. At one point there's a left turn, but as you turn there's a fork. The directions from the farm website advise that the restaurant stays on your right. With the GPS we would have had to guess, and if we opted wrong,let it recalculate and turn around. Not a big deal, but it was nice to know what to do in that moment. You know the moment. Where you HAVE to make a decision, and you can't IMAGINE the person behind you being patient, and that panicky feeling of "AAAGH!!! which way should I go, I'm in a traffic pattern, I can't just stop!" (as opposed to drivers from say...Maryland, who would very probably just stop "ehhh, I don't know what to do!!!")

Am I a convert to this device? Not all the way, but it definitely allows for more on the fly stops and decisions. We've always done those, but they've been more happenstance. Now we can just look at "points of interest," and know what excitement awaits. Hmm, I'm going to have to think about which I prefer. Though the GPS did allow us to fearlessly exit the highway for a bathroom stop.

The kids had a blast. When we got home I washed all the berries, and they were merrily eating them while I made the muffins. The six year old picked one up (from almost four pounds), and said "I think I picked this one!"