Wet West Virginia

The first two days of our vacation were terrific. Wednesday was rather gray and wet, but we went to Dolly Sods for some hiking. We drove up and up and up because a friend told me at the top there are some relatively flat trails that suddenly open out and you can look east towards the Potomac River side or west on the other trails to the Mississippi side--it's the east coast continental divide! But we realized there would be no views for us. The top of the the mountain was wrapped in clouds.

Our lunch picnic at the top of the clouds.

 Maceo was not game for a hike, so Cassius and I left him in the car to build bear traps (?) and we walked off into the woods. It was quiet and misty and Cassius just chattttttttterrrred. It was very cute, but I did have to follow each of his steps or I'd die in hot lava and his opprobrium.

"And then, and then, step on this rock, and then come this way,
and WATCH OUT FOR THE LAVA!"

We returned home to the warmth and comfort of the house. The boys got way into playing Clue and reading their copies of Calvin and Hobbes. By the evening, the weather was nicer, and we watched a movie and ate popcorn.

Professor Plum's name elicited many giggles.

Just a lot of "Daddy, listen to this one."

The view from my bedroom.

The morning view from the deck/hot tub.

Wild and Wonderful West Virginia

The boys and I are out in West Virginia for a week's vacation. Through the website HomeExchange, I was able to find a free vacation house to stay in from Monday through Friday, so here we are! We left DC on Monday morning and drove to Seneca Rocks, a world famous rock climbing spot. I had been here last year, and I had noticed people swimming in the river, so the boys and I went looking for the beach. We found it and had a good time swinging on the rope swing into the water, skipping rocks, and swimming. It was a bit cold, but still nice and refreshing.

Maceo braving the cold and the rapids.

Warming up post-swim.

Then we headed to our house! (Here are some pictures from the house's website.) We settled in, unpacked, and had dinner and went to bed. Tuesday, I had planned for us to go hiking in Dolly Sods State Park, but there was rain forecast for Wednesday which was the day I thought we'd climb to the lookout post at Seneca Rocks. I figured Seneca Rocks would be terrible in case of rain, so we switched the two days. Before we left to go on our hike, Maceo insisted we go out kayaking on the big pond down below our house. It looked idyllic, but in truth the floor of the pond is shallow and quite muddy, and there was a bit of wind. So, we didn't stay out too long. Maceo was a bit worried and anxious at the push off into the water because he was alone in his kayak while Cassius rode with me. However, once we were on the water, Maceo did great, and despite some whining, he was able to pull his kayak both all the way down to the pond but also all the way back! Once we returned and cleaned off, it was time to go hiking. We drove the 40 minutes back to Seneca and climbed the mountain. The trail is only 1 mile long but 1000 feet up a mountain, so it took us about an hour to hike up. I was impressed that the boys made it!

On the way up!

At the top!

Heading back down.

 At the very top, one can clamber out onto the spine of rocks past the sign that says "Warning--15 people have fallen and died here since 1975!" Well, surprisingly, that got Cassius's attention, and he was much more spooked about rock climbing much further whereas Maceo seemed unfazed. Other people are more daring than we are!

Not my picture! (https://i.ytimg.com/vi/D5cSl8CZ_8Q/maxresdefault.jpg)

We hiked back down, and we headed home. Once back, we soaked in the hot tub, and then we got dinner ready. Tacos for Maceo and me and left over pizza for Cassius. We watched some Wallace and Gromit on the huge tv, and then roasted some s'mores on the back deck.

You may see Maceo's head in the tub and
Cassius's s'mores in his hand.

I was hoping to keep the boys up late to see the starry night, but both Monday and Tuesday night it has been cloudy, so the boys went to bed a little late but before the sun had set. However, the day was so tiring that they fell asleep with their lights on and books in hand before I could come back down to tuck them in! And then they slept in until 8 o'clock which is, I believe, a team record!

Ft. DuPont Mountain Biking

The boys and I returned to Ft. DuPont on this past Sunday to try the single track mountain bike track again. I was excited, and we got there early enough so that it wasn't too hot. Plus we brought a bunch of water!
The park is closed right now to cars, but open to bikes and pedestrians which was great for us because we could bike all over the streets once inside the park. We found our way on to the path, and it was really nice, although Cassius was a bit overwhelmed by the one big hill. We saw a cool skink, a box turtle, and a beautiful fawn. I made a little video with my handlebar camera to try to show you the different areas of the ride and the terrain we covered.

Scenes from DC

It's been a bit crazy around here what with the quarantine, school ending via distance learning, protests downtown, curfew, and quarantine still. But we have adapted and the boys and I are doing all right. It certainly helps having friends and family around.

There have been some haircuts--

Perhaps a more professional or at least seasoned veteran at the clippers here.

Birthday dinners, both at Mamy and Maurice's house for Maurice's birthday and at our house for Susan's.

We went over to Dad and Susan's for dinner the other night. Dad and Maceo made spaghetti a la carbonara, which was very good. And we had a mean croquet tournament.

And we've been visiting Rita's for ice cream!

I bought an inflatable pool for the back yard but it didn't hold air well. So the boys made do with jumping the sprinkler.

We made it one early morning to the skate park to beat any crowds.

 And we visited Fort Washington down south of DC on the Maryland side. The fort was closed, but the river was not!