Maple Sugaring

I'm down in Maryland this weekend for a girls' weekend, but last weekend our family went to the Maple Syrup Festival at the Cayuga Nature Center.  My very favorite thing about living in the northeast has to be fresh apple cider in the autumn, but running a close second is local Maple Syrup.

After a grueling morning bleachers workout, we headed to the Maple Syrup Festival where they had a pancake breakfast.  They didn't have any gf pancakes, so WD just filled up on Maple Sausage, but SB chowed down.

They have animals to look at both inside

and outside,

as well as some cool Look & Touch stations.

By far, though, the coolest thing was the 6 story tree house.

It was built by high school students(supervised of course,)

and featured stairs, ladders, 

secret spots, 

and chain webs.

You could feel the building sway in the wind at the top.  The Nature Center has multiple hiking trails where you can find their bee colonies,

fun little surprises like this bird's nest,

and signs of maple syrup production.

One of the trails had Maple Sugaring demonstrations, both the old school method over a fire, and the modern method with a giant evaporator.

After hours of hiking and exploring,

SB was wiped out, and took the easy way out of the woods.  He's tipping the scales at 55lbs, so this is probably the last year you'll be seeing pics like this.

Thanks for popping in and enjoying the Maple Sugar Festival with us.