Another Swim Meet

Maceo tried out a new stroke in this week's meet--the back stroke.

Look at that arm extension!

The exciting season is coming to an end with the divisional meet this weekend. Only the top two swimmers in an event are counted in the competition, but everyone gets to participate. However, as it stands now, Maceo is the second fastest in his age group in the breast stroke and the freestyle! So, I think he'll be one of the swimmers who counts along with his friend Wesley whom he's known since he was 4 months old or so.

Look at that form!

Look at that speed!

I made a little chart so Maceo could see his improvements in numbers--his freestyle time in the 50 meters has gone from 47.08 to 44.66 and his breaststroke from 34.68 to 29.88! It's pretty exciting and he likes being on the team so much that he said he'd like to do swim team this fall.

Sadly, Cassius does not like competing on a team even though he really likes swimming and swim team practice and he's gotten so much better in such a short time! He can even do a butterfly, and it's super cute because when he was showing his form to me yesterday at the pool, yes, he was really moving, but also his swim suit was a little big so with each dolphin kick, his half naked little bottom was poking up out of the water.

Alert! Alert! Second Swim Team Meet!

Just to keep you updated since there's so little sports to follow nowadays--

Maceo took part in two races this past meet--he came in second in his heat for the breast stroke, and he came in second to last in his free style heat (but first for kids his age as he was racing older kids). I'm hoping that tomorrow at the third meet, he'll take part in three events--either backstroke (which is what he wants to do and is signed up for) or butterfly which is what I think he'd do really well in. Either way is great, and he seems to really enjoy being a part of the team.

Cassius finally took part in a meet and won his free style heat! He has quite an impressive freestyle stroke. First of all, his arms stay almost completely straight, so they really slap down on the water with ferocity and make a frightful splash. Secondly, he heaves his head and shoulders out of the water to breath, although he does work to practice taking breaths on both sides. And third, he's so cute and small!

AND THEY'RE OFF!!! That's Cassius in lane 6.

Look at the effort! Look at the splash! He's speeding along!

Maceo in the breast stroke race.

Freestyling to victory! (Well, not victory this time, but some day!)

My neighbor Houston is already talking about college scholarships for the boys. He really is.

Swim Team has Begun!

We belong to a neighborhood community pool about 10 minutes from the house, and the pool has a super swim team. I mean, I think they're good swimmers, but what's really great is so many kids take part, the coaches are super nice and team-oriented, and Maceo and Cassius have friends on the team. We've wanted them to take part for the last few years, but the boys were too timid to commit to it. Until this year! Finally, now they both are on the team and they both really like it. Maceo especially is quite good, and Cassius just seems to have a great attitude at practice. They had their first meet last Saturday and they'll continue having meets pretty much every weekend. With COVID, it's actually ideal! Each team swims at their own pool, and then the coaches share the times for each event and the winners are determined. So, not only do the meets not last so long, Maceo and Cassius don't have to overcome the fear of swimming against strangers with lots of strangers watching. Both boys signed up for the free style race, and both boys were signed up by their coaches for the back stroke. Maceo did very well in his free style heat, winning it with the second best time for his age group on his team and coming in 4th overall! Cassius, on the other hand, refused to participate. Maceo also refused to participate in the back stroke. However, buoyed by Maceo's success, both boys eagerly signed up for the next meet. Maceo is doing free style and butterfly, and Cassius is signed up for the free style! So, perhaps we're on our way to being a sporty family!

Maceo with a very good start!

He's in the lead!

He's been working on a flip turn,
but decided not to try it in this race.

Maceo free styling to victory

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!