Great Falls National Park

GREAT FALLS NATIONAL PARK

Great Falls is just a few miles north of Arlington on the Potomac. I biked out there on the C&O Canal towpath back in July. It's a beautiful park with a nice boardwalk to view the rapids and watch the kayakers run through. The C&O Canal runs from DC up through Virginia and I believe on to West Virginia and into Pennsylvania. Apparently, it's bikable with towns to stay in along the way.

A dog!

Another dog!

And another dog!

Maybe she could model for the vegan's alternative to Santa's Rudolph? I'll contact PETA.

Crawling and Sitting Up

She has been pushing up with her arms for weeks know, but yesterday morning, Phoebe figured out how to dig her knees in and push herself up into sitting position. Her ability to crawl is coordinated, but she only knows reverse. Yesterday she backed all the way up and got herself wedged under our rocking chair. We both wonder how many calories this kid is burning now!

Beautiful Weather

TURKEY RUN NATIONAL PARK

After the rain of Hurricane Ida moving through (a 3 day soaker) we had a 75 degree sunny day Sunday. The three of us celebrated Alisa's weekend off by going for a short hike before sundown. Turkey Run is adjacent to the CIA headquarters just beyond Arlington and it overlooks the Potomac, which is the river in the pictures below. We hope to get back there and do more hiking along the river this winter before spring floods come through.

JEFFERSON MEMORIAL

Today is yet again a gorgeous day so Phoebe and I bussed-trained over to the Mall and walked around the Tidal Basin to spend some time at the Jefferson Memorial. If any of you ever consider DC as a vacation destination, October and November are the months to hit this place. We were 2 of about a dozen people there. This also was good since Phoebe decided to ignore the "Quiet Please: Be Respectful" signage and yell continuously at Jefferson himself. I guess she thinks he's pretty cool. Or maybe just the echo the dome made was cool.

Enjoying the view of the Tidal Basin and the Washington Monument

I will just say that I did not try to take a funny picture of the monument sticking out of my daughter's head. It just happened. Honest. I couldn't see it in the lighting while shooting pics.

Brushing Teeth

Mat's Visit from Portland

Mat had a meeting here in DC yesterday, so Phoebe and I took the Metro up to Rockville to meet up with him and visit with him on the train ride back to our place. He had hoped to hang around for another day, but Laura and the kids are all back in Portland ill. We got to hang out and he got to meet Phoebe.

Phoebe got scared for a second and started to cry.

"Hmm, so that's what dad would look like if he didn't have hair like Jeff Lebowski."