Sometimes, it is good to spread out holiday cheer. To this end, we went to Aunt Mary’s last week to celebrate our Riordan-Aunt Mary Christmas in March. For many reasons, the actual holiday season is very busy for us, and we tend to put it off for awhile. Last year, I think we celebrated in May or June. Christmas came earlier this year.

Mer and I went to New Baltimore first to go to church, and it happened to be the first Sunday on which the church expansion was officially open (it had passed inspection). Since we had broken ground on the building almost five years ago, this was not a trivial thing. After the service, we all went to the new building to celebrate by chatting and visiting and eating tasty desserts (cookies, cakes, cinnamon rolls, and so on). Church and food was a good start to the day and put us in a festive mood.

We met Aunt Mary at her house, ad then she took us out to Macaroni Grill, where we feasted on their wonderful fresh, warm bread and ate good Italian food. Mer was the more temperate this time, and brought some food home. After our second repast of the day, we headed back to Aunt Mary’s home for the gift exchange. It was a cold day, so Aunt Mary added to the festive nature by lighting a fire. Mer quickly ensconced herself on the hearth for the rest of the visit.

We chatted and exchanged gifts. Aunt Mary has a touch of Riordan in her – she gave me a Red Hat Society cookbook, and put on a red hat (not related to the group) while doing so. She is well aware that I find the Red Hat Society vaguely creepy, and she smiled the whole time while I opened that gift. Mer and I got some chocolate and a beautiful picture book on the Cuyahoga Valley and a framed picture of a photo taken in the valley and some other things. Aunt Mary seemed genuinely pleased at her amber earrings that Mer had picked up while we were in the DR last summer. We also gave her a CD of old-time gospel music and a DVD of Casablanca which somehow Aunt Mary had never seen.

One of the wonderful things about delaying a holiday is that it gives us a great excuse to get together. Christmas in March was a fine afternoon.

Saturday the seventh was a busy day in Riordan household. Actually, it was much busier than anyone who has households (in the plural) has a right to, but we keep being blessed with social outings anyway. Mer came up with a scheme that gives us a little spending money (basically, any money left over from buying groceries can be used for fun things), and she took me out all day.

We started with a gift-certificate-funded lunch at the Olive Garden. Mer likes the Olive Garden because she can get the unlimited soup, and she likes the hearty soups and breadsticks that they serve. I got soup and a pizza, which I was restrained with and only hate half of (Mer and I split the rest a few days later).

We then headed to Akron, to St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, to see a musical called The Law of Love. It was a musical version of The Good Samaritan story form the Gospel of Luke, and they did a pretty nice job. There was a CVCA student in the production (playing Jesus!) whom Mer and I both know and are fond of, so that was a treat. I approved of the musical. The music was good, and they told the story in an interesting but not preachy way. Too often (in my opinion) when stories from the Bible get retold they come across as stiff on one end or patronizing on the other. The Law of Love managed to avoid either of these extremes. While I do not think it was world-class theater, it was very good amateur-level theater, and I enjoyed the entire production. There were several magnificent singers: our student who played Jesus, a baritone playing a lawyer, and a wonderful black woman playing the Good Samaritan were all excellent. As a nice bonus, the play was a benefit for a community help organization that helps the home-bound, and the event was made up of actors of many Protestant denominations and Catholic churches. It was nice to see churches coming together like that to help the needy.

We went back home briefly for supper, and then we headed to Woodridge High School, which is one of the public schools in our area (only about 5 miles away). We hooked up with our friends Dubbs and Nate to see the school’s production of Into the Woods, which I had never seen. Mer had seen the musical years ago in New York, but was really looking forward to seeing it again. Dubbs had taught as a long-term sub at Woodridge for two years before coming to CVCA, so that was how Mer found out about the production.

The actors/singers and the pit were both excellent. I think they did a really fine job. Sadly, there were some things working against them. The play was put on in the “auditeria” – a combination cafeteria and auditorium. This means the tables were pushed out of the way and we were left sitting on either hard chairs or folding chairs (we were early enough to get hard chairs). Into the Woods is almost three hours long, so sitting on a hard chair like that starts to get to you after awhile. Another issue the kids faced was that the pit orchestra was typically too loud for some of the singers; sometimes you could not hear the vocals. This tied into the last problem: the sound system was flaky. The microphones cut out on all the students at some point, and there were several characters whose microphones never worked at all. Even when the mikes worked, they were not always adjusted well – the lead singer playing the Witch overpowered her microphone several times so that her amplified voice got distorted. It was a shame – the kids were really trying their best and doing fairly well, but it is hard to follow along when the sound keeps cutting in and out. Still, I am glad to have seen the play, if only for cultural literacy purposes.

We all filed out fairly late, and so Mer and I went home and went to bed. After all, we had had a very busy day.

My friend Nate has made the mistake of wanting to run with me when his schedule allows. On this particular Friday (about a week ago), Nate was pretty whupped but still was game to go out and run 4.5 miles with me. As usual, we chatted while running and he mentioned he was going hiking with his wife, Rachel, and their toddler son after we ran. They were then going out to dinner; they had been going to meet up with friends, but the friends had to cancel. So, once we got home, I checked with Meredith, then went to school and found Nate in the locker room. I basically invited myself and Mer along for their hike and supper, and Nate was good-humored enough to agree. So, I ran home and showered; Mer got home and got ready and Nate and Rachel pulled in to the driveway soon after I finished getting dressed. We all piled into Nate’s car and headed over to the Ledges park.

Mer and I have been to the Ledges park before, and this time I remembered to bring a flashlight so we could check out the cave. Nate and Rachel had a cool back-carrier-thing to put their son in, and we all tromped off to find the Icebox Cave. The day was cool, but not cold, and some parts of the park were muddy, but on the whole the ground was still frozen enough to prevent lots of mud.

We found the cave and wandered into it. It was cool to be able to see more of it this time, but I refrained from going in all the way since I could hear sqeaking noises from the far back, and I really did not want to be trapped in a cave that was really a big crack in the rock with a bunch of angry bats. Nate’s son, Jack, was a little disturbed by the cool and dark, but he did pretty well. Coming out of the cave was amazing – it felt like a hot and humid day outside the cave; there was an almost perceptible wall of temperature change just a few feet from the mouth of the cave.

We wandered down the trail more, which was new territory to me and Mer. Rachel knew this area pretty well,  and she showed us a hole in the rock that allows you to crawl to another part of the trail. We passed on that experience since it was damp and we had Jack. She also showed us a small hole that we did try (except Nate, who had Jack) that led to a pretty cool small canyon. Neat-o. We ended the hike by climbing Conservation-Corps-era steps that wound up through the rock. I really like the Ledges park, I must say.

We then piled back into the car and headed to Macedonia to get some supper. We ended up at Outback since Mer and I and Nate and Rachel all had gift cards to the restaurant. Jack was hungry and a little fussy, but cheered up when we procured him some bread. We got a table after about a 20-minute wait, and had some pretty good  food. Jack seemed most interested in eating ice (maybe he has a tooth coming in), and he was really very good until the last 3-4 minutes. Nate took him outside while we paid our bills, and he calmed right down. I guess he really wanted to be outdoors. After the Ledges, who can blame him?

On the first Wednesday of the month, Mer and I and members of the CVCA Ceili Club went to Akron’s branch of the Ancient Order of Hibernians. The AOoH is a group in the U.S. that promotes Irish culture, and yes, this means that there is usually a pub or bar in the building. In the case of the Akron branch, there is a small bar in one room and a large general room next to it. We headed to the large general room, although most of the kids (who came in their own cars) had to be buzzed in through a locked door in the bar, like in Prohibition days. Since the club is supposed to be members-only, all the doors are locked. They let us come since we were going to dance.

That is why we were there, and hope to be there on the first Wednesday of each month. It turns out that the Akron Hibernians have an informal but very excellent ceili band. I have been wanting the kids to dance to live music for some time now, and it turns out we had a band just 15 miles away. The band has been very much wanting to play for dancers, but could not find any. I found them on the internet, and we got in touch. Mer and I checked the place out in February, and I got clearance from the president of CVCA, so I sent information home with the ceili students, which included an invitation to the parents. So, on this Wednesday, we had nine dancers and about eight parents, and various spectators kept drifting in from the bar from time to time.

It was tremendous fun. The band was probably 18 strong and included whistles, fiddles, guitars, an upright bass, mandolins, a ukulele banjo (a new instrument to me), accordions and Irish drums. They had a really great sound. The would play for us while we would dance, and then we would rest and they would play while we took a breather. The kids (and Mer and I) had a wonderful time. There is something different about dancing to live music, and it had been almost 14 years since I had last danced at a live session myself. Everyone was very friendly and hospitable, and we are looking forward to going back. Next time we have even arranged with the band to allow anyone to join us, especially on the easier dances, so maybe we can spread the joy of Irish dancing.

There were a few funny moments from the event – I had a man from the bar wander in and ask me if he could stay and watch. I told him he was most welcome, and he said, “Good! The music in here is much better than the crap they’re playing in the bar!” (They were playing 80s rock in the bar.)

Some of the kids updated their Facebook statuses:

“Mary just went ceili clubbin’.”

“Sarah just talked to a stranger in a bar.” (This occurred when Sarah went for some water in the bar and a lady complimented her on her dancing.)

It was a fun time. If you are in the NE Ohio region and want to dance, come and join us – the first Wednesday of each month (at least during the school year).

So, it has happened once again; I am WAY behind on my blog. I’ll start to correct that with this entry.

Shannon and Jo were kind enough to come out the last weekend in February with the primary purpose of doing me the favor of coaching the Fools. Shannon and Jo both have over 10 years of improv experience (that makes them old), and this was the third time in five years that they agreed to come out and run a special practice for my group.

The actually even came out early to help coach our school’s acting class. The theater guy is a friend of mine, and when he found out that Shannon and Jo were coming out, he asked if they would be willing to teach a class for his students. They agreed, and although the acting class is not about improv, there is enough common ground that Shannon and Jo were able to easily fill 45 minutes. They made the kids think about body language through a series of exercises using different styles of walking; they made them interact in a created space (like an elevator), and they made them think about line delivery through having the students say the same exact line in several different ways. I think they did a pretty good job.

They had more time to work with the Fools – we went from 3:30 to about 5:00, and we had 8 of the 10 Fools in attendance. Shannon and Jo did a really amazing job with the kids, especially with making them work with heightening. Heightening is a concept in improv where you make what is going on “more.” You make the relationship more intense, or you make the location more extreme, or you make the something done or said on stage of immense importance. It is a central concept of improv, and it makes scenes/skits more interesting.

Most of the exercises that Shannon and Jolene worked on were focused on heightening in some way. They made the kids do lots of physical action, which carries energy with it. They made the students start a small action and make it grow bigger, and the student had to remember all the small movements that were going on along with the main motion – it was a great exercise for body control and awareness. They ran the Fools through several games where the goal was to heighten “to the grotesque” (as Shannon put it). This included one-on-one showdowns where the students were trying to make the action of a solo scene more intense each round, and exercises where a particular object or something said was THE most important thing to a character for that scene. It worked really well, and I was impressed; I really wish Shannon and Jo could coach monthly – we would be a tremendous improv group.

After the festivities wrapped up around 5:00, we let Meredith take care of her classroom stuff and then headed out to Akron for supper. I thought it would be fun to take Jo and Shannon to Mustard Seed Market for supper. The Mustard Seed is an all-natural grocery store that also has a cafe, and they occasionally have live music as well. This night (Friday), they did have a solo guitar player/singer who provided nice ambiance music for the dinner. Shannon and Jo both seemed to enjoy their meal, and Jo bought a pound of Fair Trade coffee to go home with. Mer and I bought some cookies, and Shannon had none (he gave up junk food for Lent).

After we got home, Shannon and I took on Jo and Meredith in “It Was a Dark and Stormy Night” – a game about guessing the title of a book or the name of an author based on hearing just the first line of a book. Shannon and I took an early lead, and we were even up by 5-2 at one point (you need to get to 8 books). Sadly, Jo and Mer got 3 lines that actually had the title of the book in the first line, and they ended up winning 8-7. It was sad. On that note, we all went to bed.

Saturday was a nice day, so we headed up to Peninsula,which is the most New-Englandish town in the area. It is a small town in the Valley, and is built around the Cuyahoga River, and the buildings are largely tasteful (in my opinion). We had too much food at a local restaurant, The Winking Lizard. We poked around the small bike shop next door for a little while, and then went home, where Shannon and I napped while Mer graded and Jo read.

Once we were all conscious again, Shannon and Jo and Mer got ready to be all cultured. They were going to Cleveland to hear the Cleveland Orchestra perform several works, including Beethoven’s 7th Symphony. I am not a big fan of classical music, so I decided to stay home and try to download a Superman animated movie from iTunes. That took my whole evening because of various updates and software downloads and the like, and then it turned out that my laptop is too old to show iTunes videos. It was a rather frustrating evening. Shannon and Jo and Mer had a wonderful time. Severance Hall, where the orchestra plays, turned out to be beautiful and a wonderful venue (it was the first time there for all three). The music was excellent, and Shannon was pleased with the Beethoven (apparently the Cleveland Orchestra is known for its performances of Beethoven works). They had a good time, with the exception that Severance Hall is in an area that is thin on restaurants, and so they had no supper.

All in all, it was a good, if quick, visit. This summer I’ll have to work on them coming out for a four- or five-day weekend so we can hit Amish country and other sights (in the never-ending excitement that is touring NE Ohio).

Last Friday Mer and I had tickets to go to Actors’ Summit Theater (where else?). So, I dug out my Date Day reserves and took Mer to San Francisco Pizza Oven in Hudson.

San Francisco Pizza Oven is a decent enough place to eat. It is not going to win any awards on charm, but the food is usually decent and it was striking a chord last Friday. We ordered our food (Mer – ziti, me – bbq chicken panini), and I got a hot chocolate. Since the restaurant is SF-themed, they use Ghirardelli’s chocolate in their hot chocolate. I figured it had to be good. Boy, was I wrong. It was about 800 degrees hot, and completely tasteless. I do not know if they put the “small” amount of chocolate in the “large” cup, but it was pretty bad stuff. Do not get hot chocolate there!

The food was very tasty, although my modest sandwich was fairly late in coming out to the table, for whatever reason. Mer’s food was hearty and good (she let me try some). Happily, because of the delay in the food, the waitress gave us a coupon for a free sandwich for the next visit. Yes, we can be bribed with food.

We made our way the very short distance to the playhouse, where we got to see The Year of Magical Thinking. Magical Thinking is a one-woman show about the author trying to cope with the sudden death of her husband and the constant illness of her daughter, who dies a little over a year after the husband. The play was quite well written and very well acted (the poor actress had a ton of lines with no one to help). The theme of loss and grief is pretty universal, and so I should have been into this play, and yet I was not.

I’ve tried to figure out why. I think it is lots of reasons. It was a Friday and so I was tired from work. The play dealt openly with emotions and internal thoughts, which Mainers and especially Riordans do not do. My world view and the author’s are wildly different. The author feels she can fix and control everything, and I can relate to that – maybe we are too similar. Maybe I don’t like to deal head-on with death. For whatever reason (and maybe all of these and more), the play just made me feel impatient and failed to capture my attention or emotions. It should have, but it did not. There you are.

Continuing about last Saturday, it was Valentine’s Day, and we actually had a date plan! A coworker had tickets to see Lord of the Dance in Cleveland, but could not use them, so she gave them to me. They were in the nose-bleed seats, but that is actually good for a show big on spectacle and low on dialogue – you can see the entire stage at once, and that makes for a fine show.

A few days after we got these tickets, a student of Meredith’s approached her and mentioned the show. He said he thought I would like it, and wondered if we would like to double date with him and his CVCA girlfriend, who is also a student of Meredith’s and is a founding member of the Ceili Club. We were both very flattered and readily accepted. How many students think it a good and romantic time to hang out with adults, let alone teachers? Since we had tickets, Matt and Lauren (the students) would be sitting in a different area for the show, but that would give them some space on Valentine’s Day; we agreed to go out to dinner first and we would all ride in our car to Cleveland, so we would still get to spend lots of time together.

The funny thing about the evening was that it was a surprise day for Lauren – Matt planned the whole thing and Lauren knew nothing about it. Again, a risky move of surprising your girlfriend with a double date with teachers.

Mer and I called ahead to Texas Roadhouse where we had agreed to all meet. Texas Roadhouse does not take reservations, but you can put your name on the waiting list via phone. So, when we got to the restaurant, we only had about a 10 minute wait (there was about an hour wait already at 4:15!).

We walked through the door of the restaurant and Matt and Lauren were already there waiting. Lauren’s face lit up – she was really excited to see us. Again, most gratifying and flattering. We decided to wait just outside the doors of the restaurant since things were so crowded. We chatted and I took a photo. It turns out that part of Matt and Lauren’s romantic day had started with a training run with the cross country teams that morning (Matt and Lauren are both runners). Somehow, I suspect that Mer would not be too thrilled if I suggested starting out any Saturday like that, let alone Valentine’s Day.

We had a pleasant dinner. While Texas Roadhouse has a wonderful way with all things meat related, their desserts are skimpy and not appealing (I think they have three choices). Since we were doing okay on time, we decided to swing by the house to condense down to one car, and then head over to Handel’s for ice cream (and yes, it was February and butt-cold; that is what car heaters are for).

Post ice cream, the trip to Cleveland was uneventful except for a search for the directions that included going back to the house (we found them in Mer’s seat – she accidentally sat on them and could not feel them through her enormous coat). We had been joking all evening about going to see a monster truck rally to throw Lauren off the scent. It turns out that we did not have to worry – Lauren had never heard of Lord of the Dance, but she was excited to see it when she found out that it involved lots of Irish dancing.

My only sadness of the whole evening was that the gallery that houses my favorite sculpture, Melody, was actually open, but we did not have time to go in and see the statue. Next time.

We agreed upon a meeting place for after the show, and we each went to our seats. As I mentioned, our seats were way up in the third balcony. It was a little fear-inducing for me because of the height, but the view of the stage and then the show was fine. The show was great! The Lord of the Dance does have a plot – the good Lord of the Dance, aided by a guide, must fight off the evil dancer who is challenging him. It is pretty straightforward, but it does make for a tighter show (plot-wise) than Riverdance. I think I like Riverdance slightly better because it showcases more musicians, and seems as if it has more dancing. It’s pretty close. Anyway, I enjoyed the show very much. I was amused by the four lead dancers (the Lord of the Dance, the evil guy, the good girl, and the evil girl). They were excellent dancers, but since they were in charge of their squads of dancers (as part of the plot), they spent a lot of time strutting around the stage pointing and gesturing while the chorus dancers danced their hearts out. The leads all had solo dances and also took part in the big dances, but it sure seemed as if the leads danced less (or at least not more than) the chorus dancers.

We all met back up after the show, and Lauren got an usher to take some pictures. Sadly, I did not bring my camera for fear it would not be allowed in the venue, but Lauren had hers in her purse. Lauren and Matt both liked the show very much. We had to wait a bit to get out of the parking garage, but once out we made it home with no incidents. It was a very successful evening!

Saturday, as you may have noticed, was Valentine’s Day. In addition, it was “my” day where I could plan anything that I wanted to do. So, what does the master of schmooze and romance do on our national day of love? Hang out with lots of students! And it was much fun, too.

To start the student-intensive day, we headed to a birthday celebration for Zach (a.k.a. “Moops”), which was being held nearby. Moops is a Royal Fool, and so I have known him for a couple of years. His mom is also a music teacher at CVCA, and so I have known her for about 5 years. Mer pointed out that it is pretty neat that we feel comfortable hanging out with either the parents or the students. Anyway, I digress.

We first struck out for Hudson to get Moops a birthday present. It seemed natural to guess what he might like – a teenaged male could not dislike food! So, we headed to the nearest Panera and picked up a gift card. We were waited on by a CVCA student, so we got an additional student appearance in on the day.

Supplied with our gift, we headed to Kendall Hills park where the party was being held. It was supposed to be a sledding (“sliding,” in Maine) party, but the two-plus feet of snow we had two weeks ago is now gone. So, it turned into an eat-and-hike party.

It was a surprise party, so Moops was not there when we arrived. There was a warm and roaring fire in a large barrel to keep us warm, so the waiting was not a problem. There were several students that Mer and I knew, and Moops’s parents and grandparents were there, so we had a good time waiting for the birthday boy.

He showed up with his girlfriend, who was the one to dream up an excuse to come to a park on a lightly snowing day (I think she told him they were meeting her sister and then going to lunch). Moops seemed quite surprised. Food suddenly appeared in the form of chips and pizza. We ate and talked, and then we each got a cupcake with a candle on it to blow out. I guess Moops is so old he needs help with his candles! It was a fun and tasty twist on a cake.

We then took a hike of about a mile around the park. When I say “we,” I mean the students took off ahead while we cleaned things up a bit, and then we (Moops’s parents and Mer and I) followed at a distance. The snow was not heavy and was not accumulating; it just made things pretty. We tromped around for about a mile or so and made a loop back to the fire. We talked for a few minutes more, but then Mer and I had to leave for part two of the evening. I’m glad Moops was able to host us for his birthday – food and fellowship and hiking makes for a good time.

 Friday night was the first-ever off-site, non-CVCA-venue Fools show. After the first Fools show of this year, back in December, a CVCA alum (and wife of a CVCA teacher) approached me and asked if we would mind being the entertainment for their church’s Valentine’s Day get-together. I was surprised, but quickly said I would think about it and run it past the students. They were pretty excited about the idea, and so we landed an extra show for this year.

I also now have an assistant coach. One of the Founding Fools asked if she could come back and help coach. Since the Fools group is now 10 members, I accepted the offer – it will allow me to split the group in half and get the individual students more stage time in practice. Mer and I gave the new coach, Clarice, a ride to the show. We chatted about coaching things and got to the church about 6:00, with the doors opening at 7:00 and the show starting about 7:15 or so.

Our friends had done a great job – the basement fellowship hall of the church was looking pretty classy. There was black fabric hung around with white lights draped behind them. There were about 10-12 tables in the hall covered with black tablecloths and candles. At the front of the hall there was a small stage that was in the shape of a T – a broad back portion with a small thrust stage sticking out. The stage was about six inches off of the floor and was made of bouncy plywood. There was a small office on one side of the stage that we were allowed to use as a hang-out room (a green room), as well as for an isolation chamber for the various guessing-game improv skits. Finally, and amazingly for us, there were two small red-tinted spotlights illuminating the stage. It was a nice set-up.

The various Fools showed up by 6:15 (except for one who was stuck in traffic), so we went over stage notes. People started trickling in about 6:45, and so we found a room in the upstairs of the church where we could warm up. We headed back down to the fellowship hall around 7:00, and we ensconced ourselves in the “green room” until we were given the thumbs-up at about 6:15.

The room was pretty full – probably about 60-70 people. It appears the Fools have a bit of a cult following – we did not advertise this show at all at CVCA, but there were still about 25 CVCA people in the audience, including a fair number of students. The crowd was very enthusiastic and was much fun to play to. They needed some extra prompting to give us suggestions to get scenes going, but I think that is due to not being familiar with improv shows and how they work.

The show itself went pretty well. There were only a couple of games that either lagged or went long. Since we played a total of 14 games, that is a pretty good percentage! We had several crowd-roaring moments, and most of the show was laugh-worthy (in a good way). Some highlights:

– a “new choice” where a basement was infested with a dinosaur
– a super-fast “interrogation” where the criminal nailed that she had stolen paper clips with Rapunzel in the White House
– a “genre rewind” where the character had a sore tooth and a crazy dentist and had to perform the scene as opera
– a “good, bad, and ugly advice” where one character was a nasally geek/nerd
– a “musical chairs” where a man forgot to get his girlfriend a diamond ring for Valentine’s Day, and settled on getting glass rings instead, and they ended up in a zoo in China
– a “political debate” that got my friend Nate on stage (since he goes to the church and works at CVCA), where we debated belly button lint and number two pencils

The show did have a half-hour intermission, so I don’t think it felt too long. We went about an hour and fifteen minutes (I think).

After the show, we headed over to the house of one of the Fools – she lived only a few blocks away and invited us back for pizza. 7 of the 10 Fools could make it, and so we caravaned the short distance over. Clarice, Mer and I ate pizza and chatted with a couple of parents and grandparents upstairs while the Fools headed to the basement. After we finished eating, Mer and I and Clarice headed downstairs to see what was up. The various Fools were chatting while a couple played Halo on an X-Box. We joined in the small talk, and then I was forced to play Halo for the first time ever, happily against another Halo newbie. I lost 3-2, and it was universally agreed that we were pretty sad players. I then played another Fool at Rock’em Sock’em Robots. I lost that too, so I lost both new school and old school games. I must be getting older.

We’ll have another Fools show back home at CVCA in March. I hope it goes as well as our Friday gig.

Last Sunday was a fairly nice winter day. We had recently gotten another foot of snow, and although some of it had melted, we still had well over a foot of snow. I had called Jim on Saturday to see if he wanted to go trompin’ in the woods. He was game, but had to wait for Sunday. So, Sunday afternoon, Jim and I headed down to the Towpath in the Valley to tromp out to the beaver dam area.

I love the beaver dam walk – it is about a mile to the pond, and I had seen it in spring, summer, and fall, but I had never seen it in winter. It seemed like a good quest to wade through a foot of snow to go see a frozen pond.

I was quite surprised to find that the Towpath had a well-worn path already. It was only four days after the major storm, and the walking was not difficult at all. I guess nature nuts like the beaver pond!

It was a pretty walk, and Jim and I chatted about work and about running (of course). We did come around a corner and see another couple of people ahead on the trail, and when we got to the pond there was a dad with two little girls (who were having a great time throwing snow balls into the mushy top layer of the ice). I was fairly surprised to come across people, especially where it was only a few hours to the Super Bowl, but for much of the outing we had the trail to ourselves.

Jim decided he had to test the ice, so he climbed over the rail on the walkway and held on while he lowered more and more of his weight on to the ice. It did hold, but it had “bad idea” written all over it.

I took a bunch of pictures, and we sat on a bench for a bit and watched the ice. We then headed back to the car. As we drove off, Jim had asked me if I had ever been to the Ledges park, and I said I had. He asked if I had seen the Ice Box Cave, which I had never found, so off we went to see the cave as a bonus.

The Ledges trails were far less packed down. I like the Ledges in that it has  rock outcroppings and a pretty decent forest. I was delighted to see someone had built a snowman on a ledge.

We wound our way down the trail, and Jim guided us to the cave. It was a good-sized crack, and it went back a far amount. Sadly, it was also really dark. Once you got in about 15 feet, you could not continue for the dark. Jim said that it went back another 40 or 50 feet. Next time, I’ll need to bring a flashlight.

We went back to the car and were treated to a pretty sunset. It was a good outing, especially given the immediate couch camping I was going to do to watch the Super Bowl.