Our other hike was at Red Rocks, which I am told is a venue where music is sometimes played. I thought it was a lovely hike.

(more…)

We spent a week in Denver, hanging out the Janiece and Anne and Susan and Stacy (and attendant family members) and not only did we have a wonderful time, I was able to be convincing of the need for hikes.

Our first trip was to Dinosaur Ridge, which is a free park. It was a steep hike in parts, but beautiful, and I was sorry my ankle didn’t like the climbing, because I would have liked to have spent more time there.
(more…)

Various things that struck my fancy as we wandered through DC.

(more…)

We took a long weekend and spent two days wandering around the Washington DC Mall. Although it was cool, the weather was so lovely we spent almost all our time outside.

We so most of the major monuments, including the WWII Memorial and the MLK Jr Memorial, neither of which was on the Mall last time we visited.

The Washington Monument is visible from just about everywhere.

(more…)

Hard to believe how many flowers were blooming in early March.

(more…)

Of course it’s all gone now, but there was some very pretty snow along the river while we were at Pittsburgh.

(more…)

One of the other things we did in Pittsburgh was take the Duquesne Incline.

What, you may ask is the Incline?

Well, it’s the Incline. It’s goes up. And it goes down.
(more…)

That’s right, we were in Pittsburgh, home of Mister Rogers.

(more…)

My 2012 Denali Wildlife calendar.

Addendum the First: I emailed them, and they’re going to send me stickers to fix the numbers. Too bad I already messed it up by writing in the correct dates. :(

And that birthday party?

Totally fun.

We had a stealth trip to Cincinnati this weekend, for a surprise 40th birthday party for my friend Andrew.

There are a couple things that are mandatory during Cincinnati trips. The first is Graeter’s ice cream:

The second is a trip to Jungle Jim’s, where we find many strange and wonderful things:

As a bonus, we found this tableau in our hotel drawer.

I also gave my point-and-shoot to Andrew’s daughter for awhile, so you can also browse what happens when you give your camera to a five year-old.

Saturday we were in Charleston for our niece’s birthday, but since the “kid’s party” was in the early afternoon, we spent time with Michael’s mother, and wandered around a bit beforehand. Michael’s mom lives quite near the Coal River, so we went to the Big Falls area for a bit, and then to the Little Falls area.

So the endpoint for our travel was Berkley Springs.

The center of Berkeley Springs are the springs that bubble up from the ground. The became a spa that was visited regularly by George Washington. In fact, there’s a little stone tub labeled “George Washington’s Bath”.

We again had beautiful weather, and since the Eastern Panhandle is slightly warmer than us, there was still plenty of leaf color.

(more…)

Our last stop on our trip was to the C&O Canal in Hancock MD.

I spent a lot of time in this area when I was growing up, as it is not only the halfway point between Morgantown and Baltimore, but because my aunt & uncle lived in nearby Warfordsburd PA. Except, of course, that was just their mailing address. Where they lived, we’d talk brief walks over the state line to Maryland, and church and grocery shopping were in Hancock MD.

And of course, walking and biking along the C & O Canal.

Tow path along the canal.

(more…)