More Shenandoah

Just a few more pictures from our day trip with Nate & Shell through the Shenandoah National Park. 

Of course, the standard pics together at the entrance, and at an overlook.

We learned from a park ranger that Shenandoah National Park has the highest density of black bears in the US.  We saw several, but only got a shot of this one.

This was fawning season, and we saw some cuties with their moms. 

It was a great and eventful day trip there.

Seeing Old Friends

We met John and Barb Hart at Cedar Cross Church back in the early 1980's.  Twenty-some years later, we are in Virginia and they are retired and living in upstate New York.  Not long ago they were in VA visiting Barb's sister and family.  We had the pleasure of meeting up with John and Barb for lunch and catching up.

Thanks for coming to see us, Barb & John!!  It was so good to see you!!

Fun with Nate and Shell

Oh how blessed we were that Nate and Shell came to see us for a week!  We did LOTS of fun stuff together - and several places we went and things we did were first time events for us here and around DC.

Mount Vernon, George Washington's plantation.

Celebrating Barb's birthday at the Chart House in Alexandria, on the Potomac River.

Enjoying and nice summer evening on the deck (l) and playing dominoes (r).

Playing mini-golf on Father's Day (top left).  Visiting the International Spy Museum (top rt) and China Town (bottom).

Kayaking the Potomac River on a warm summer day!

Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park (top) where we saw black bear and several deer with fawns.  Luray Caverns (bottom), which were so phenomenal! We will post a separate blog on that later.

Waiting in line for tickets up the Washington Monument (l), and celebrating once inside (r).

Par three golf.

A final dinner out at our favorite restaurant, Clyde's Willow Creek Farm.

And a get together with high school classmate Jared Gwaltney and his wife Lydia.

Boy, did those kids need a rest when they finally went home!

Misc. Presidential Memorials

One weekend in June we decided to explore some of the Presidential memorials we hadn't had a chance to see yet.  In case you didn't know it, not all of them are as big as the Jefferson, Lincoln, or Washington memorials, or in as prominent a location.  Nope, some of them are downright inauspicious or off the beaten path. 

Let's start with LBJ.  The poor guy, seems like he really didn't have a lot of backers for a big, ostentatious memorial.  Nope, he got the Lyndon Baines Memorial Grove ( a stand of pine trees) and a hunk of granite.    Granted, it is a big hunk of granite, from Texas, but it is just a big hunk of rock down near Reagan Airport. 

James Buchanan - quick, what are his top three accomplishments??? James got a good sized statue in a park several miles north of the White House.  Nice, but no where near the capitol mall.  

Teddy Roosevelt, now he gets a huge statue and a big plaza and his own island.  But to get there you have to leave the district into Arlington, cross a footbridge, and hike a few hundred yards in.

We still need to go find Reagan in the Ronald Reagan International Trade Building and Wilson in the Woodrow Wilson Center.