outdoors | Nyan Thomas L's Blog

Hot Fun in the Iowa Summertime

Sometimes the simplest pleasures are the best. Like the day when Nyan, Daddy, Grandma and Grandpa went for a casual hike in the woods. Or at least through a meadow. Grandma and Grandpa wanted to check out the site of a future residential development, and Nyan was happy to go along. He even got into the rural life, happily chewing on a grass stalk. (Nyan wore his camouflage shorts especially for the occasion; the black and white striped shirt, he added, was so that he could be a zebra. A camouflaged zebra.)

Another day we headed up to a place a little ways out of town called the Devonian Fossil Gorge. It’s an area of ancient rock that was exposed a decade or so ago when a nearby river burst out of a dam and gushed for weeks, scouring away millions of years of topsoil and rock. It left behind what was the ocean floor some 375 million years ago, and now is home to lots of clearly visible fossils. We had taken Nyan there a few years ago, but this visit is hopefully one he will actually remember. He certainly seemed to enjoy it.

On yet another beautiful and warm summer day, we visited a place called Trueblood Recreation Area, just south of town. It’s an old quarry that’s now filled with water and has been developed as a place to fish, hike, or take pedal boats out on the water. So that’s what we did. Grandpa and Daddy pedaled while Grandma and Nyan chilled and luxuriated. It was a lovely ride at a beautiful site.

Leave a comment

Posted by Chris L. on July 23, 2017 in Uncategorized

Tags: iowa, outdoors

A Picnic in the Park

21 Jul

One pleasant June afternoon, Aunt Maggie announced she wanted to take Nyan on a picnic. So off they went! with Grandma and Grandpa in tow.

The picnic was at a lovely park that was chock full of fun things. Like a sand pit…

And a water play area that almost made us feel like we were back in Singapore:

And plenty of playground equipment to climb on and slide down.

Best of all, maybe, was the simple, the classic, the swing.

What kid doesn’t love to swing?

Leave a comment

Posted by Chris L. on July 21, 2017 in Uncategorized

Tags: family, outdoors

Slime and Soccer with Mia

15 Jul

Nyan got to spend some quality time with cousin Mia during his trip to Iowa. What did they get up to? Well, they tried their hand at making slime:

They goofed around with their hair and glasses at a restaurant. Well, to be precise, Mia (and Aunt Maggie) did while Nyan giggled.

They hung out on the couch while Mia played with her new iPhone:

And, maybe best of all, they hung out in the backyard. There were some (attempts at) cartwheels…

And there was soccer. Mia’s been playing for years; Nyan’s been playing for months. We thought some of her skills might rub off on the lad. That remains to be seen, but at least they had fun.

Leave a comment

Posted by Chris L. on July 15, 2017 in Uncategorized

Tags: family, iowa, outdoors

Return to (Iowa) City Park

09 Jul

After a few days in California, it was off to Iowa for a couple weeks with Grandma and Grandpa. One of the many places we hit up was… Iowa City’s City Park.

Yes, we have been here before. And yes, the name is just as creative as it’s always been. Whatever; it’s a lovely place right along the river, with trees, playing fields, open space, and an area with a few kid-sized rides like a merry-go-round, baby ferris wheel and a working (miniature) train on a quarter-mile oval track. Nyan’s always loved this park, and this time was no different. In fact, we went there a couple times on this visit to the homeland.

Did I mention there are ducks? There are ducks.

And rides too. Every kid loves the rides. Especially the plane.

Don’t forget the merry-go-round.

20170619_160847

But of course, the crème de la crème is the train. Here we had to wait patiently as it finished a run:

And a few runs around the track, with Grandma, with Grandpa, even with Daddy.

Nyan loved the train so much that he took several walks along the entire length of the track.

20170618_122555

The park, the train and the rides have all been there since Daddy was a boy – even before that, surely – and we hope they’ll still be there for many years to come!

Leave a comment

Posted by Chris L. on July 9, 2017 in Uncategorized

Tags: Grandma, iowa, outdoors

Up Among the Tall Trees in Northern California

06 Jul

Nyan had never seen a redwood tree before. We had thought about going to Muir Woods National Monument on previous visits to the Bay Area, but the fear of crowds kept us at bay. (That, and jetlag that always seemed to mean we slept more than sight-saw.)

This time around, we zeroed in on Big Basin Redwoods State Park, about an hour and a bit south of San Mateo, just to the west – along some climbing and winding two-lane roads – of Cupertino. We headed out early one morning (thanks, again, to the jetlag) and got there not long after they opened, around 8ish. It was quite chilly, especially for us equatorial residents who lack much warm clothing, but it was not crowded, the morning sun was glorious, and the trees were superlative.

Let’s just check out some pictures and videos. Words don’t do it justice.

And some videos too.

We were all suitably impressed. Then, while driving on from the park, in the middle of the redwood forest, we suddenly chanced upon…a Burmese monastery! What? How random. We stopped, of course, and checked out the stupa. Didn’t see any people at all; it was peaceful and seemingly deserted. Then we found the monk – yes, there was just one monk – and then we found some other Burmese folks who come up every weekend to cook up a week’s worth of food for the monk to eat. They promptly offered us a huge Burmese spread for lunch, which we gratefully accepted.

Totally random, but totally special.

Our final stop on this busy morning was at a NASA museum, not far from Google headquarters. It was a small affair, but kinda neat. It had some replicas of modules from the International Space Station, displays about various satellites and space missions, and an actual moon rock brought back by one of the moon missions. It actually wasn’t as awe-inspiring as we had hoped – it was just a little rock, encased in a glass display. It was so uninspiring, in fact, that we forgot to take a picture of it. Oops.

Then it was off for a drive through the nearby Google corporate campus before heading back to our rental apartment. Nice day overall.

Let’s end with some more photos of those majestic redwoods.

Leave a comment

Posted by Chris L. on July 6, 2017 in Uncategorized

Tags: outdoors, travel

Lots More Soccer

25 Jun

Is Nyan becoming better at soccer (football), now that he’s been at it for five months or so? We’d say so, marginally. What’s really important, though, is that he’s still enjoying it.

One important change: we found a stash of soccer/football jerseys in the closet – shirts we’d been waiting for him to grow into. He’s just about grown into them, so we’ve been busting htem out for practice. Looking good!

Let’s take a look at some live action. Here he is practicing his shots on goal. Practice makes perfect, eventually.

Soccer practice is usually a lot of drills, followed by a scrimmage of some sort. In this game, Nyan shows a little bit of defensive prowess (relatively speaking) And we also see the passion as tempers flare after a goal:

Speaking of defense, check out the boy’s defense in this drill!

Practicing ball control and footwork:

Scoring a goal (eventually) in practice:

Boys being boys:

Here’s some sort of game drill, in which Nyan decided he’d just stand in front of the goal, apparently:

Last but not least, it’s fun to wind down after practice by doing a little climbing on the nearby playground equipment.

Leave a comment

Posted by Chris L. on June 25, 2017 in Uncategorized

Tags: outdoors, sports

Goofin’ Around in the Pool

10 Jun

As you’ve seen, our young man has gotten quite good at swimming – both relative to how he was earlier, and in absolute terms. But not to worry: the lad still gets up to plenty of goofy and silly fun in the pool. Check out these videos.

When he’s in the little pool, he likes to show off some routines. All of which he makes up on the spot, of course. Like “Monorail Explode” or “Balloon Circle Explode.” It’s kind of like modern, interpretive dance, maybe?

Here he is in his “Famous” phase, featuring maneuvers like “Famous Shipwalking” and “Famous Airplane Wing.” Also “Famous Train Whistle.”

Spinning around like a, uh, like a corkscrew in a swimming pool, maybe.

Finally, here’s our hero, and Mommy, viewed from 20 stories up. Note that Nyan is (successfully) walking while wearing diving flippers.

Leave a comment

Posted by Chris L. on June 10, 2017 in Uncategorized

Tags: outdoors, swimming

Jungle Hike for Mother’s Day

06 Jun

Singapore celebrates Mother’s Day in May, like the U.S., rather than following the U.K. calendar, which celebrates the day in March. Last year, we ended up taking a hike through the jungle along the seashore. This year, completely coincidentally, we wound up…taking a hike through the jungle. Wasn’t on purpose, but it was nice nonetheless.

We went to an interior part of the island, a hilly part full of water reservoirs surrounded by dense jungle, cut through with a number of well-maintained hiking paths.

This being Mother’s Day, Nyan allowed Daddy to take a fair number of photos in which he posed with Mommy:

We also tried out a newly discovered feature on Daddy’s camera phone, which takes “bursts” of shots – like dozens in a row. We thought we’d try to capture Mommy and Nyan both leaping high in the air together. We didn’t quite get the timing down. Nice photos though:

But maybe best of all: the rainforest here was thick with monkeys! We steered pretty clear, as we’d heard they might try to steal a water bottle or whatnot. Managed to get some good pics anyway.

Oh, and yeah, Nyan posed for some photos with Daddy. Although they pale next to all the shots with Mommy, and the monkeys too.

Leave a comment

Posted by Chris L. on June 6, 2017 in Uncategorized

Tags: mommy, outdoors, Singapore

Swim, Swim, Swim

03 Jun

Nyan continues to take weekly, hour-long swimming lessons in our condo pool, and he continues to get better and better. He’s at the point now where he can do several different strokes and shows zero fear in the “big pool” – i.e., the pool where he can’t touch the bottom while keeping his head above water. (Not to worry – we still stay right by him when he’s in the big pool.) Let’s take a look at some recent videos and pictures.

This gives a good overview. It’s in the big pool (with little sound, because Daddy shot the video from far away so as not to disturb the lesson):

Backfloat!

And the backstroke, of sorts, plus some other strokes:

Look at this. No fear:

He’s also learning to dive, sort of.

Some fun times: Nyan likes it when his teacher, Pang, tosses him high in the air:

And finally, just a few still pictures from various lessons and back-floatings.

1 Comment

Posted by Chris L. on June 3, 2017 in Uncategorized

Tags: outdoors, swimming

Castles Made of Sand

28 Mar

We live about a 10 minute walk from the beach. It’s not the kind of beach where you really want to go in the water — too much garbage floating in there, we’re very sad to say — but the beach and the adjacent park are simply lovely places to hang out.

Farther up the beach — a good 20 minute bike ride or so — is an officially designated sand castle spot, complete with a little shop that sells buckets, spades, and little knight figurines. We headed up there one blazing hot Sunday afternoon and spent a good hour building and destroying various castles, towers and cities. Nyan’s already making plans for his next sand castle adventure. Here’s a bunch of photos from that fun sunny day.