Travel Necessities {Sunday Seven}

This post was going to be a Friday Five list but there are more than five things we wanted to include and my busy Friday and Saturday didn't allow for writing it. Welcome to Saturday Sunday Seven! No matter where we're going - a day hike, 10 days to Hawaii (leaving in two weeks!!!), or a roadtrip to relatives - we pack a few things every time. These travel necessities provide most of what we need to survive extended layovers, small emergencies and detours. Here's what we always have with us:

1. Backpacks - A big one for Papa, a medium sized for Mama and a just right backpack for Lil come with us everywhere. We invest in quality here and our choices reflect our different personalities as well as our sizes. Alex's REI Lookout 40 has a billion pockets and can hold a lot of stuff. My purple Osprey Sirrus is sleek and simple with one big storage area and a ventilated back. Lil carries a now-discontinued REI kids pack.

2. Water and Snacks - Lil likes a camelback-type water reservoir with drinking tube, a lightweight hydration option. Alex and I carry stainless-steel, screw-topped water bottles. In each of our packs we take a granola or fruit bar in addition to any picnic items so that we can refuel if we get hungry. Some of us (ahem, me) are very grumpy when we are hungry. To make dining from a grocery store or farmers' market possible, Alex packs a corkscrew and pocket knife.

3. First Aid Kit - Alex manages our first aid and medical gear in a bag that is always at the ready. Included are bandages, alcohol wipes, ointments, painkillers, antihistamines, a SAM Splint, Quikclot, medical scissors, a needle, iodine tablets, and travel containers for our prescription medicines. We have yet to have a real emergency that required use of the heavier duty equipment but it is a comfort knowing that Alex has our first aid covered.

4. Rain Gear - During college Alex and I both invested significant cash in the first generation of Goretex jackets. We can't stand being sweaty and breathable waterproof fabric seemed like a dream come true. It is. Fortunately a quality waterproof breathable jacket is much more affordable these days. We prefer the Marmot Precip Jacket for their fit, durability (Alex's is over 4 years old now), and light weight.

5. Wool Clothing - Do you wear wool? We discovered Smartwool merino socks in the mid-nineties and finely woven merino wool clothing a decade later. Both improved our wardrobe dramatically because high quality merino wool is breathable, wicks moisture, durable, anti-microbal and amazingly comfortable. We own wool shirts, pants, skirts, and even wool underwear. Wool is perfect for travel because it is lightweight and easily washed and dried in a sink or lake.

6. Walking Shoes - I try to be a shoe minimalist, investing in a few styles of high quality (and expensive) brands. From April through October, I wear Chaco Big-Toe Sandals and flip flops exclusively. Just this week I found a pair of Little Girls' Chacos for Lil so we can walk in matching comfort. Alex has an opposing shoe philosophy and packs half a dozen pairs for every trip. Good thing he can carry his own bags!

7. Entertainment - We pack with two categories of entertainment in mind: on the road and at the site. On flights or during roadtrips, Alex and I keep ourselves entertained with conversation, books or games on our phone. We're intentional about packing small, lengthy activities for Lil. Her during-travel favorites are fun books with mazes, seek and finds, and coloring, Colorforms reusable sticker scenes, Travel Tangoes magnetic tanagrams, and her Samsung Galaxy 5.0 tablet loaded with movies and games. During lengthy trips, we wrap small gifts (stickers, temporary tattoos, small notebook, origami paper, etc.) and dole those out over the course of the travel. We pack binoculars, cameras, nature journals, a travel watercolor set, Ziploc bags for shell collections, and card games for entertainment during the vacation or business travel.

What are your travel necessities?

Road Trip Food: Chesapeake Snack Mix {Recipe}

Every summer of my childhood, when we would go camping with a group of families, my mother filled an enormous tupperware lidded bowl with homemade Chex Mix. Some kids picked out only the pretzels while others left just the nuts behind. Often the bowl was empty after a single evening.

I always crave Chex Mix when I travel. Over the years, I have combined my childhood memories of the crunchy, salty snack with my husband's family's East coast roots to create my own version: Chesapeake Snack Mix.

My mix includes coastal favorites oyster crackers and pecans and Old Bay as the primary seasoning. I also upped the ratio of butter and seasoning to dry stuff because that's the way I like it.

The only downfall of cereal snack mixes is that they have a tendency to be crushed to bits when packed into a bag. That's why I package mine in wide mouth quart jars. When the mix is gone, the jars always come in handy on the trip as a drinking glass, a place for a collection of shells, or a storage container for other snacks.

What snacks do you make or buy for the road?

Chesapeake Snack Mix Makes: 2 quarts Time: 45 minutes

4 tablespoons unsalted butter 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce 2 teaspoons Old Bay seasoning 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 1 cup broken pretzel sticks 2 cups oyster crackers 3 cups multi-grain square cereal (or wheat Chex) 1 cup pecan pieces

1. Melt butter on a large cookie sheet in a 250 degree F oven. 2. When butter is melted, stir in Worcheshire sauce, Old Bay, and salt. Spread pretzels, oyster crackers, cereal, and pecans evenly over the sheet and stir. 3. Put mix back in the oven. In fifteen minutes, stir mix so that everything is evenly coated. Return to the oven. 4. In ten minutes, stir again. If oyster crackers are browned, remove from the oven and allow to cool. Otherwise, leave in oven a few more minutes before removing to cool. 5. Store in an airtight container.

PS. The Kitchn featured my home on a kitchen tour Tuesday with lots of pictures. I hope you click through and enjoy!

Travel Planning the Hound Way

Travel is a priority for our family. We simply love seeing new places, eating regional food, and challenging ourselves to explore and grow. We sacrifice other expenses to constantly save money for the next vacation. It's no surprise, after hundreds of trips in the past decade, that we have a 'way' of travel planning. Here's the gist of our casual, tech-centric, social, organizing style:

Pick the Place or the Place Will Pick You

We keep a life list of places we want to visit. Our dream list is impossibly large and expensive, including destinations as varied as South Georgia Island, Alaska, Asheville and Belgium.

More often than not, though, the place picks us. Lil and I tag along on Alex's business trip or the reverse when I have an out of town event. Tradition holds that we make our way to Lake Erie every Labor Day and we're often invited to Massachusetts for Alex's family events. Every few years my parents invite us on vacation with them and this year my grandmother is taking the whole family to Hawaii.

We don't mind pushing the dream list aside for other worthy destinations. We can enjoy each other's company and discover things we like in anywhere.

Book Something

Push the purchase button or call in a credit card number to a hotel to commit to a date and reserve one of the big ticket items. Usually we start with airfare, if we're driving. Alex is a United man so we go with them unless flight routing or cost is clearly preferable on another airline.

If we're just staying a night, especially in a city, we book hotels with Marriott brands. Alex accumulates reward points with Marriott so we often receive perks or free stays. We like their Residence Inn brand for two-room suites with a small kitchen that we can cook a meal or two in.

For longer trips, we search VRBO.com and HomeAway.com for vacation rentals. Vacationers can search by destination and many other attributes to find a variety of owner-operated condos and homes on these sites. The VRBO experience allows you to live like a local, often in unique properties like the amazing Big Island estate we'll stay at during our upcoming Hawaii trip. Thus far, we have never had a bad time staying in a VRBO property.

When Alex and I get away for a romantic weekend, we like to choose Select Registry Inns. The small hotels and bed and breakfasts included in the Select Registry offer the highest level of service and accommodations. It isn't often that we truly relax but the Select Registry B&Bs we've visited are outstandingly calming.

Gather and Organize Ideas

Next up is finding activities and food for the trip - this is the fun stuff! Alex and I used to keep a shared Google Doc with ideas but now we use Pinterest. We pin restaurants, parks, museums, and more for the months before we travel. If we are driving, we make sure to find restaurants and parks along the way for rest stops. Twitter friends are great sources of tips for restaurants and cultural sites.

We surround ourselves with books from the library. We read travel guides, picture books, destination, music and videos. We print a map for Lil and mark our stops together.

A few weeks before the travel begins, I set up a basic itinerary in a shared Google Doc or Evernote. I include options that are date specific (like farmers' markets) and museum opening and closing times. Rarely do we follow the itinerary to a tee, so I don't spend too much time trying to perfect it.

We use TripIt to track paid travel details like flights, hotels, and rentals. Our smart phones run the app so we can travel with less paper but still have important details at our fingertips.

Pack

We try to pack as lightly as possible for easier travelling. Alex frequently reminds me that "it's only money" and "they have stores there".

Our travel toiletries bag stays packed permanently as does our first aid kit. Alex keeps a technology bag full of the cords, chargers, and ipod so that our various informational and entertainment devices are always ready to go. Our backpacks and suitcases are always packed with some necessities too: water bottles (empty for flights), corkscrew, bandana, pens, and ziploc bags for collections.

Other items must be packed per trip - clothes, snacks, swimming gear, binoculars, books, and Lil toys. We designate who will bring group gear, like games and field guides, when travelling with extended family. If it's a road trip, we take a crate with cutting board, knife, cloth towel, and foodstuffs. For camping trips, we include our tent, chairs, sleeping bags, and the like.

Typically we wait until the day before a trip to pack or maybe two days for a bigger vacation. Packing is routine now and we rarely forget crucial items. Of course, as soon as I typed that Alex revealed that he forgot business socks for her current trip to Chicago! I will cover some of our specific travel essentials in a post later this week.

Go!

Finally it's time to leave for vacation. We say goodbye to the hounds (left in the care of family or friends) and take off.

Our casual planning method works for us but I know it wouldn't work for everyone. How do you plan family travel?

PS. All pictures in this post are from our last vacation. Read more about our trip to San Salvador Island Bahamas, beach food, making salt, and coconut creations.

Lessons in Spring at Inniswood Metro Gardens

I often forget about Inniswood Metro Gardens in Westerville, Ohio. The park is a little out of the way and the highly stylized gardens are more formal than I prefer. So when a friend and I took seven kids to Innis last week, I was pleasantly surprised to explore the relatively new - and fabulously educational - children's garden.

The Sister's Garden is a 2.8 acre child's paradise opened in 2002. Beyond the kid-friendly sculptures at the entrance is a playhouse and shed for dramatic play, a water feature open in warm weather, and small fruit orchard.

The early readers in the group used maps to guide us through the rest of the children's area. They followed along the Native American story stone path that leads to a statue. Continuing on a wooden boardwalk led us to the tree house with levels for climbers of different abilities. From there, a stone path took us to the Secret Garden, a recreation of a broken-down, walled garden with quotes, jewels, and sculptures hidden among the intentionally overgrown plants.

After lunch, my crew of three walked to the frog pond to the right of the main entrance.

The kids loved spotting turtles and frogs hiding among the cat tails. Our eagle-eyes spied other parts of the amphibian life cycle - eggs (bullfrog, I'm guessing) and tadpoles. How cool to see all stages of life in one place!

The boardwalk trail beyond the frog pond included labelled wildflowers. Lil and her friends remembered some of the names from last week's hike at Highbanks.

Though the rules about the formal gardens prickle my anti-authoritarian instincts, I must visit Inniswood more often. We observed and learned so much and there are many gardens and areas yet to explore.

INNISWOOD METRO GARDENS 940 S. Hempstead Road Westerville, OH 43081 Open 7 am to dark daily

Know if you go:

• Food is not allowed in the formal gardens. There are picnic tables across the parking lot from the park.
• Pack a change of clothes for kids as there are many opportunities to get wet or dirty.
• Remind children to stay on trails and not pick the flowers.
• Check the program schedule for preschool play days, gardening workshops, and special events. The Inniswood volunteers and herb society are offering a plant sale May 5th and 6th.
• Admission is free. Thank you Columbus taxpayers!

Ohio State Nature at Highbanks Metro Park

One sunny day this week, our family and two friends took a hike at Highbanks Metro Park to stretch our legs and spy on the eagle's nest. Little did we know what else we would find. We observed the Ohio state wildflower, bird, tree, mammal, the United States national bird and Ben Franklin's national bird nomination in an easy three mile hike. Can you name the specially designated species? I'm proud to say that Lil identified them all!

As we approached the eagle overlook platform, another birder alerted us to a flock of wild turkeys up the road. They had mostly moved on by the time we approached but we saw a male moving stealthily across the trail. The kids gobbled, though we heard nothing from the real turkeys.

We found the eagle's nest. Both parents were there at first. One left, soared, and returned to the nest while we watched. Alex thinks he saw the head of a chick; I trust his eagle eyes.

We listened to birds and woodpeckers along the way, spotting a brown creeper, downy woodpecker, Northern cardinal (Ohio state bird) and several other songbirds.

One of the children we were with wanted to know the name of this tree. It's the buckeye, Ohio's state tree! We also observed the Pool family gravestones, prehistoric earthworks, and a valley that demonstrates two kinds of Ohio bedrock, all labelled with engaging signs.

I love the ancient Ohio state wildflower, the trillium. We saw several along the trail in the company of spring beauties, may apples, Dutchman's britches, asters, violets, and more.

On the return loop, a flock of white tailed deer (Ohio's state mammal) ran through the woods. They stopped and ate within our eyesight, camouflaged in the trees.

Easter weekend is a great time to take a few hours to soak up the sun and observe nature. If you are in Columbus, I highly recommend the Overlook trail to see a variety of woodland life including the bald eagle nest.

If you go:

• Park in the Oak Coves picnic area, the first picnic area on the left after entering the park.
• Bring binoculars - the eagles are barely visible with the naked eye.
• Carry a snack or water if you might need it.
• Visit the Oak Coves restrooms before you leave - there are none along the trail.
• Expect to spend at least 90 minutes on the 3 mile trail if trekking with kids. Adults could complete the trail in an hour with few stops.

Inspiration at Stratford Ecological Center {Wordless Wednesday}

Images from an afternoon at Stratford Ecological Center March 26, 2012.

1) baby lamb 2) chicken coop 3) hens protecting eggs 4) u-pick greenhouse 5) giving garden sign 6) goats and cows 7) Rachel and sheep pen 8 ) Lil petting cat 9) cernal pool 10) mayapple 11) spring beauty

Feeling Salty? Make Your Own Salt from Seawater

We made our own salt from San Salvador, Bahamas sea water.

This statement usually elicits one of two responses. 1) "Wow! Awesome!" 2) "Why? It's only like $1 a pound at the store!"

We, of course, are of the "Wow, Awesome" mindset. But to answer the why: 1) Because we can. (This reason motivates far too much experimentation at the homestead.) 2) Because we never have before. 3) To bring back a free souvenir. 4) Because we can't in Ohio. 5) What else are you going to do in the middle of a hot afternoon on a remote island?

How to Make Salt from Seawater

Making salt is as easy as you might think. Here's what we did:

Collect the seawater, avoiding sand. (My awesome photography assistant Lillian took these pictures.) We collected 3/4 gallon after spillage.

Place the water in a shallow pan and put it in the hottest spot you can find to evaporate.

Look the next day and realize that the sun isn't really doing much. Consult the book Salt: A World History you happened to have on vacation and find that evaporation takes a month or so.

If you aren't staying a month, heat the salt water. We weren't sure of the metal quality of the rental house pans, so we opted to bake the water in a glass pan in the stove. Boiling would be faster but could easily corrode a low-quality pan.

Bake for many hours. Wonder if the water will ever leave crystals behind.

Finally! A salt crusted pan! Marvel.

Scrape the salt crystals into a pile.

Measure the volume of the salt for the information of your blog readers. We made about 1 cup from the 3/4 gallon batch.

To appear as though we weren't cocaine smugglers, we stowed the salt in clear plastic containers and baggies clearly labeled salt in our suitcases. That was apparently enough to get through customs just fine.

Will We Make Salt Again?

Making salt was a fun way to get a souvenir from the ocean for free. We know it was only free because we weren't paying the electric bills to keep the oven on for a half a day and simultaneously cool the house with air conditioning. I doubt that it makes economic sense to cook your own salt from seawater unless you have access to a free source of energy (maybe wood?) or time to wait for evaporation.

Yet we will certainly make salt again. We're smitten with the totally local, no cost, easy-to-take-home souvenir.

We also want compare different salts from different oceans. Will Hawaiian salt taste markedly different than San Sal salt? Will it have a different color or crystal structure? Curiosity demands that we experiment a little to find out whether we should start a collection of homemade salts from around the world.

Have you ever made salt? Will you try it next time you're at an ocean?

Want to Buy the Homestead? And Other Updates

Homestead for Sale

We are finally putting our Clintonville house on the market very soon. In the meantime, life is a blur of paint and trim and organization.

The new buyers of the hound homestead will move into a home complete with:

• two rainbarrels
• seven fruit trees
• dozen perennial edibles
• seven raised beds with organic soil
• compost bin
• wood stove and what's left of the ash wood pile
• kitchen designed for serious cooking and canning
• new insulated windows and doors
• two car garage with built in workbench

If you are in the market for a house and want to choose finishes like paint and a little bit of flooring, let's talk ASAP.

In Other News

In addition to my role as chief house stager, I am working with three social media clients: City Folk's Farm Shop, OCS Logistics, and C-PAP Central Online. It is exciting to guide small businesses in the world wide web.

I also accepted a role with Swainway Urban Farm to assist at farmer's markets. Our first date is the Clintonville Sprout Swap on April 28! I am a huge fan of Joseph's growing philosophy and can't wait to help him share organic seedlings, produce, and mushrooms with the Clintonville and New Albany market shoppers.

As if life couldn't be more busy, we decided on our last trip (this past weekend to Indianapolis) to start a family travel blog. Lil will take videos, Alex contribute quick posts on the road, and I'll manage the whole thing. Check out Curious Wanderlust for our very first updates.

Thanks for hanging in with the website updates during the hosting transition. I'm in the process of transferring to a new-new host with the old-new theme and everything will look normal again soon.