Saturday, March 1, 2014

Maple syrup festival


One of the annual events that brings the community together in Cedar Rapids is the Maple Syrup Festival, held the first weekend of March at the Indian Creek Nature Center, 6665 Otis Rd SE.

Eli had an all-day rehearsal today, so he and I got there as soon as it opened (8:30). It was quite cold, as it has been pretty much all winter, and either that or the early hour held the crowds down. Good for us... because it meant easy access to the pancakes... but not so good for the nature center, or for the people who were missing out, so I hope things picked up as the day wore on.

There were plenty of volunteers, parking cars...

...making and serving pancakes...

...and staffing exhibits.

An event like this requires a lot of different kinds of volunteering. There were workplace groups, as well as individuals who volunteer for the nature center. Everyone looked cheerful and warm, in spite of the temperature. Happily we got to eat inside. The pancakes and sausages were great, and we both had plenty of each. I'm not sure where the coffee came from, but it tasted good too. They typically have live music... we heard bluegrass (and caught a reference to the nature center) but didn't see musicians, so maybe it was recorded a previous year. We didn't stick around long, because Eli was late to his rehearsal, but I hope next year the weather will be more clement and we can poke around the exhibits and chat up the volunteers.I always learn something from the exhibits no matter how often I visit.

Jane took more pictures at the 2011 maple syrup festival, including the one at the top of this post. Her post from that event is at http://nesmithfamilyblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/maple-syrup-festival.html.

Cindy Hadish has breaking news of the nature center's new "living amphitheater" at http://homegrowniowan.com/indian-creek-nature-centers-living-amphitheater-to-be-named-after-patterson-family/

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