Panama Plans

I have decided to hire a guide to visit Soberania National Park and go birding on the pipeline road. Apparently the bird watching there is supposed to be really good. I will have to pick up a field guide when I get there because my books don't have the right birds!

Today we did a little hike at Lake Needwood near Rockville. Our trail is marked in Red. We started near the Dam at the lower end of the lake and walked All the way around. Seth slept part of the way. He seems to be very comfortable in his new pack.

Seth and Mom after a fun journey!

Seth Sleeping, Dad Hiking

Seth Getting A Drink

Seth's First Blog Post

//M; OSKOBFFA4G

Immunizations

Ok, my immune system is about to go to war with itself for a few days. Boy, does that sound dramatic?

I got my travel innoculations for Panama today:

• Yellow Fever
• Hepatits A
• Typhoid
• Tetanus

Plus Loriam (mefloquine) to prevent malaria and a 14 day dose of Cipro for any odd cases of diarrhea or fever. The Cipro I won't take unless I need it. Hoo boy, it's fun to do business overseas!

Hairy Woodpecker

This morning Debbie spotted a Hairy Woodpecker on one of the maple trees in front of our house. We both got a good look at it. It's bill was clearly larger and heavier than the downey woodpeckers that we see regularly, which look similar but are smaller. This is the first time I have seen one of these around our house. I'm pretty sure it was a female because there was no visible red on it's head.



In our yard we have seen these woodpeckers:

Downey (most common)
Hairy
Red Bellied
Pileated
Yellow Bellied Sap Sucker
Norther Flicker

Seth in the crib

I don't know how he can sleep like this, but I guess he's comfy.

More Info on Panama Trip

My trip to Panama will be to the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

If you want to check it out click here.

The Longest Day of the Year

Today we get the most sun.

I bought a light timer for the front porch light that is programmed to turn on at sunset and off at sunrise. The cool thing is that it doesn't have a light sensor. It actually is programmed to know the sunrise/sunset times based on your latitude. If you want to be precise you can tell it your local sunrise and sunset times or, if close is good enough, you can set it based on a latitude range that is already in the timer. Then it figures out what the difference is each day and adjusts to the shorter or longer hours. This evening the light will turn on just a little later than it did yesterday and tomorrow it will start going the other way and turn a little earlier.

Panama Reservations

I made my travel reservations for going to Panama today. I have to do a little study to figure out what to expect when I get there. Unfortunately they don't print any paper money of their own (they use US$) so I won't be adding to my collection. One good thing is that they are in the same time zone as the Eastern US. No Jet Lag!

Happy Father's Day!

This was a great first fathers day.

We had lunch on the deck. Grilled Chicken Sandwiches with Sage Pesto and Apples


Here's a link to the recipe.
You should try this. Thanks Debbie!

Joe flew in from Honolulu this morning so he and Maureen arrived about noon and Beth came from New Jersey, and Mom and Dad from Fairfax. We ate and talked and just generally had a good time.

Saturday AM

It is a beautiful, sunny day this Saturday. Seth is napping after having gotten us all up at 6 am. It looks like today will be a day of puttering and little projects. Sounds good to me.

Seth's New Ride

Note the fancy reflective strips for high visibility! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Cress.

Flag Day

Happy Flag Day

Weather and Flying

Two trips this past week; two long delays because of Thunderstorms in Washington.

My flight back from Albany on Friday was pushed back to 7:45 from 6:15. I was able to get on the 4:45 flight which left at 6:45. That was lucky. I was not so lucky in Boston yesterday. There I sat on the runway for an hour and a half waiting for the weather to clear. Apparently all traffic for Dulles was stopped on the ground because of the storms. I finally got home a little before 10 pm.

On Thursday I am going to drive down to Raleigh; they are forecasting thunderstorms...

A few Vacation Photos

Here are a few pictures from our trip out west. Seth is eight months old and has already been in nine states!

We are having a quiet Saturday at home. It's been a good day.

Grandpa and Seth with a BIG tree

Uncle Dave and Seth at Hurricane Ridge

Grandpa Debbie and Seth at Marymere Falls in Olympic National Park

4 Generations
Grandma, Great Grandma, Seth and Debbie

Albany

I am currently in Albany, NY at the airport waiting for a business associate to arrive. We are doing a presentation for Renselear Polytechnic Institute today. I suppose I will use the wait time to get some work done.

Crib Mattress - Part Two

Last evening we lowered the crib mattress as planned. This morning, Debbie heard a Ha! coming from Seth's room and went to get him. He was standing at the end of the bed grinning. It looks like our timing was pretty good.

Time to Lower the Crib Mattress

Debbie just told me that when she went to pick up Seth from his nap this morning he was standing up at the end of the crib looking very proud of himself. I guess we will have to lower the crib mattress a bit so he doesn't take a dive. Isn't progress great?

Will's 11th Birthday

Today my nephew Will is 11 years old. We went up to New Jersey to visit this weekend and to go to the birthday party. It was fun. They boys played baseball.

Seth travelled well once again. He is getting pretty good at this by now. He also is making advances in the crawling department. He was able to travel 5 feet or so to get my keys on Sunday morning. I suppose I will have to put up a get on the stairs now.

Jet Lag

We are home from the west coast. It was a good visit with the family out there.

Seth is a little jet lagged it seems. Debbie told me that he slept until 10:30 this morning. That's got to be a record.