Tuesday, September 08, 2009

A Day Up North

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Usually, in our neck of the country, Labor Day is a bit warm and sultry.  What a perfect day it was, 80ish, comfortable, slight breezes, foggy morning to start…perfect!  (Did I mention, perfect?)

The kids & I rode up to Smithville with Grandpa to use the car, but Ron wasn’t ready for us to fetch him, yet.  So, we headed up to the lake for some sketching and play!

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We went to the Jerry Litton Visitor’s Center and I settled in at a picnic table to sketch while the kids played with the frisbee and ball they had gotten inside and looked for bugs & interesting things on the ground.  We found lots of “fairy handkerchiefs” and my aging camera caught the occupant of one.  Rianna also managed to find a grasshopper that sat still for her and a toad that they both got to hold!

DSCN9602If you can’t see this master of disguise, click the photo to go to Flickr and I’ll give you a hint!

 

Some other critters we found…

 

 

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DSCN9618Next, we headed back into Smithville and played at Rotary Park.  I let the kids climb on the caboose…then saw the words painted on the caboose. “Do not climb or play on caboose.”  Oops!  So we went to the playground.  Playing, being hard work, pleas for food soon followed.

smithvillesquareNext stop, town square.  Fritos and bananas and playing on the stage were good.  Fortunately, it was too early for any of the antique shops to be open!

By then, Ron was ready to be rescued from his laptop, so we fetched him and headed over to Weston.

 

CottonwoodWeston Bend State Park, scene of many adventures in our family, including the dramatic 3 hour wait for my sister to come up from the city to fetch us when the Weltemobile-at-the-time broke near the beaver pond, set in lush Platte County, was our destination.  For some reason, the playground there has particular appeal to the kids…don’t know why, it’s a typical modern playground.  So, we did that for a while.  Geordan brought me a Cottonwood leaf to draw.  Cranky kids forced a scene change, so we went to explore the tobacco barn.

Tobacco Barn - Weston Bend

Tobacco is still grown in northern Missouri and sold in Weston every year.  Not for the cigarette companies, though, I think for pipe tobacco.  There were a few plants growing next to the barn and the door is open to see the framework inside for hanging the stakes the plants are dried (cured) on.  Someone was busily eating the 4-foot plants and I managed to photograph some eggs under a leaf.Pumpkins & Tobacco at Weston BendTobacco Leaf with Eggs

After a tour ‘round the campground to pick a likely spot for a future trip, we headed back to town. 

3 comments:

nanke's stuff said...

Sounds like you had a lovely day with lovely sketches to remember it by! nancy

Kate (Cathy Johnson) said...

WOW, what a productive, lovely day, Malinda! Thanks for sharing it with us!

SideShowMom said...

Thank you Ladies!!