Best Blogger Meet-Up Ever: Runninghood was in my 'Hood!

I know that sounds very Richard Scarry, but it wasn't very scary at all :P

Amanda@Runninghood was in my neck of the woods this past week. I didn't even realize it until I saw a picture of her feet with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. That picture must have been taken from a place about 15 or 20 minutes from my house... if there's no traffic, which is never. I knew I had to engineer a meet-up. She had actually proposed this a few weeks ago when I was in the throes of getting things together for our family's trip to France. And I totally spaced... which was the case with lots of important things that week.

Amanda's blog is one of my very favorites. She is very thoughtful and thought-provoking on every aspect of life... parenting, running, education, kitchen-renovation, you name it. Her posts are filled with feeling and intention. Some are very deep and some are almost frivolously funny, but they always resonate with me. Do check her out if you haven't already :)

In real life, Amanda is every bit as beautiful as she appears in print. Her smile just lights up the day. She radiates an intensity and an energy that I aspire to possess. Her sense of humor is awesome... that means she got and genuinely laughed at my jokes :) Her children are fun and engaged and engaging and just as lovely as their mama. Her husband is such a trooper for hanging in and keeping track of the kids while we chatted away. Thanks again, Amanda's husband!

We went to a playground in Golden Gate Park where the kids could just run and climb, climb, climb and swing and slide. They had a blast.

Miss C nevers fails to make use of a good training opportunity ;-)

Amanda's 4-year old daughter is such a sweet and sensitive spirit.

The three girls climbing.

Miss C always needs to test her limits.

Amanda's 6-year old loved these sliding parallel bars...

She is such an outgoing girl. She became instant friends with another girl at the park.

Going down the slide 'properly' for a change.

Here we are at the end of the visit...

The moms look better in the picture on her blog, but the kids look like they are having more fun in this shot... on hers they look like they are giving each other the 'stink eye'!

Thank you so much, Amanda, for letting me hang with you and your tribe for a couple of hours! And for laughing at my jokes ;-)

I'll keep my eyes open for one of those fancy blankets made from the hair of a yak's balls that are so popular down here in San Francisco... land of nannies and fancy strollers and Sophie the Giraffe. I know you want one ;-)

And I hope we get to meet again soon!  xoxoxo

Wonderful Day-Trip to Soissons

Soissons is a town of roughly 30,000. It is one of the oldest towns in northern France and dates back to before the 3rd century. For a long time it was even the capital its own kingdom. Lots of history in this town. I have included this link if you want to find out more. It was run roughshod over for millennia, very notably in the last century when it was on the front line during World War I and again saw action during World War II.

My husband reconnected with someone from his childhood who currently lives in Soissons. She is a lovely person and an amazing hostess, and she shared this interesting and beautiful town with us.

We spent the better part of the day just walking around and talking. It was one of the highlights of the trip. Those spectacular Parisian 'attractions' are amazing, but connecting one-on-one with someone and really seeing something from a more personal perspective really make the trips for me.

After a bite to eat, we headed to the local playground and park where everyone had a great time.

Head first down the slide... is there any other way? Miss C doesn't think so.

For a teeny playground in a teeny town, the collection of trees was incredible. There were over 20 different types of trees... this did not include the shrubs... in a planted area about the size of a smallish city block. Tulip poplars, larch, douglas fir-ish ones, weeping willow, copper beech, weeping beech, chestnut, cherry, ginkgo, norfolk island pine-ish one, some species of 'regular' pine, variegated holly, a couple of species of maple, a couple species of oak... it was like a mini arboretum. My horticultural education was screaming with excitement! (yes, that was my major in college... don't make fun of me).

We couldn't have picked a more lovely and perfect time to take this trip. Everything was blooming and green. The temperatures were perfect for walking around and being outside.

Here, Daddy made the flowering cherry "snow" on the kids...

We then went for a walk through town and wound up on the banks of the Aisne River.

The swans on the Aisne can apparently be quite aggressive. The kids were enchanted and, fortunately, did not fall victim to any swan-assault. The kids did, however, assault each other... or their chuthers ;-)...  because they each wanted to touch a swan but kept freaking the poor birds out. Every time one of the swans would swim up pretty close to one of the kids, a sibling would come charging over to try and touch it, too, which pissed off the first kid who would then scream at the second kid who would still not back away which necessitated a getting punched. Yay. During the melées, the swans would swim away... of course.

This is the historic cathedral in Soissons. I encourage you to click the link to learn more. It is very rich in history, and there is too much to say for me to write it all over again :)

The cathedral was halfway between the vicious swans and this abbey.

L'Abbaye Saint-Jean-des-Vignes is in ruins and has been for over 200 years. Again, I encourage you to click the link here to read more about it. It isn't a long blurb, but it is a bit much for me to try and summarize.

You can see it was a lovely day!

Above, Baby X is making shadow puppets on the lawn...

And below, the kids are finally frolicking ... amongst the ruins of a medieval abbey.

As my husband often says...

It doesn't get any better than this!