An Urban Boychick Takes on the Outdoors

 I never wrote anything about Valerie and my trip to Texas - and since right now they're having some very unusual weather (accumulating snow!), the place is fresh in my mind. Most of the trip was family visiting stuff, but it did have some outdoorsy (which is the ostensible theme of this blog) aspects. Probably the biggest one was that we happened to be there at the time that migratory sandhill cranes were stopping in as they headed south for the winter.  The cranes' range is from Canada, where they spend summer and breed, down to Mexico, where they spend the cold months. In some of the big nesting areas you can see upwards of 10,000 cranes at once; however in Galveston you usually see only a few at a time. It's more of a birder thing, a chance to check another species off on your birding checklist. Henry, Valerie, and I headed over bright and early to hear a lecture about sandhill cranes, which was actually pretty interesting (Cailin slept in). The admission included food,...