Lyra LOVES Monkey Bars, I Think She is Another Future Rock Climber

When Lyra is on the monkey bars, we have do do regular palm inspections. She already has callouses, but will keep playing until she gets new blisters, and they pop. Then she wants band aids and tape, so she can KEEP playing. She keeps pushing herself to skip bars, and has a new thing where she will jump from the start to the farthest bar she can reach. Sort of proto dynoing. We need to get her to the climbing gym this summer.

Via iPad

Diorama Mania - Normandy and Beyond

Will and some friends who share his passion for historical battles, model building and strategy games had a festival today. It also involved pizza, candy and exiling the girls to the attic. The time period is roughly late WW2 and the scale 1:72. Schedules limited this to about three hours, but the boys would gladly have continued into the wee hours of the night. Our big challenge is where to put the diorama parts when they are not being used for play.

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Scooters di Roma - Corso Vittorio

I spent a few days in Rome this past week, and had a few (too short) opportunities to walk around. Wednesday evening I had dinner at La Danesina di Annalisa Polo, near Piazza Navona. There is a taxi stand also near the Piazza on Corso Vittorio where I took these photos. It seemed like scooters, and to a lesser extent motor cycles, were more common than cars, and everyone rode them - men, women, young and old. They were ubiquitous even in heavy traffic. If I were out in Roman traffic on a scooter, I would want body armor, not shorts, but it was hot so comfort won out for most riders.

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Video: Arlington Children's Chorus, Festival of American Folk Music

Arlington Children's Chorus sounds GREAT! Check out the video -- Festival of American Folk Music http://t.co/0jtt1Qz via @youtube

Arlington Children's Chorus sounds GREAT! Check out the video -- Festival of American Folk Music youtube.com/watch?v=fqkuFp… via @youtube

— Cathleen Phelps (@cdphelps) June 6, 2011

Sent from Bill Phelps' iPhone

Lyra at the Playground, Luray, Virginia

There is no setting more suited to getting great photos of kids than a playground. Luray has a small park in the center of town with lots of good old playground equipment. The kids especially loved the see-saw, which did not have any of the modern safety features of newer versions.

While all the kids played, due to some combination of their behavior and operator error with the camera, Lyra ended up best represented in decent photos. These are not as sharp as I would like. I was trying to set the shutter speed for motion blur in the background, and ended up with too much blur in the subjects. The results were also helped by the fact that (when she is in the mood) Lyra actually likes to pose for the camera, and most of these shots had her cooperation. Lyra especially loves the monkey bars, and as usual ended up with blisters on her palms. She worked hard to pose holding on with just one hand.

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More photos of Luray Caverns in Virginia

I shot these handholding my 7D. I also tried flash, but generally did not like it. Someone smarter than me on our tour brought a tripod, but with my wife and three kids that would have been too much. And on Saturday afternoon the tour was packed. I need to go back alone at some point alone with better gear for low light. As my friend Joe Nash says, it's the difference between going somewhere and taking photos vs going somewhere TO take photos. Luray Caverns is designed for heavy tourist traffic. Our guide said 3,000 people on a heavy day. WikiPedia says 500,000 in a year (which would imply more than 3,000 on busy days in season). The path through the cave is paved, and the cave is well lit with electric lights. The guide told us they actually wash the cave formations once a year because of all the dirt introduced by the tourists. This was a far cry from our cave experience in Belize where we basically had to swim into a cave and the only light source was our headlamp and the guide's flashlight.

A more significant difference from Belize was in the use of the cave by Native Americans. In Belize, where there is also a dense cave system, the caves were extensively used by the Maya. In Luray Caverns the evidence of earlier human use is very limited and inconclusive. For such a large and spectacular enclosed space this surprises me.

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Cave Formation, Luray Caverns, Luray Virginia

These incredible caverns were discovered in 1878 and basically saved this little town from bankruptcy. They are about 35 acres underground and have the best cave formations I have ever seen. Sent from Bill Phelps' iPhone

Will's Birthday : Crossing the Teen Threshold

Will turned thirteen today. Wow. In three years he will be eligible to drive. In five years he will (hopefully) be off to college. Right now he is still having a blast being a kid. He is loving his models, and wooden Japanese wooden sandals (geta). He enjoyed his birthday (combined with Easter) feast in his kimono and geta. Japanese has become one of his favorite course this year, and he has really become fascinated with the culture. He also received James Clavell's book Shogun, which apparently is recommended by his Japanese teacher.

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