Vacationish

I use the term vacation loosely here. It was a vacation in the time of Coronavirus. And by vacation I mostly mean Matt didn't have to work and we went places together on not a weekend day. So anyway, vacation week was last week. We made the best of it and it was actually a pretty good time. 

Monday: we went fishing in our creek. That was about the extent of it cause we had a few other things we had to do this day. 

Tuesday: Backstory- Matt has always wanted to go to Luray Caverns. I have never wanted to go to Luray Caverns. I am terrified of Luray Caverns. I always told him that would be a great trip for him to go on with Quinn and have some bonding time. Well here we were 137 into a pandemic and the thought of going to Luray Caverns was less terrifying than one more day stuck around my house. Lucky us that we were about the 3rd people to check into good old Luray that morning and pretty much had the dark, wet, underground cave to ourselves. Clearly, I survived and it wasn't that bad. We had to wear masks the whole time and my glasses were either fogged or I just quit wearing them, so maybe it helped I couldn't really see. 

After Luray Caverns we took a little drive over the Shenandoah National Park. We did the Stony Man Trail, which ended up being perfect. It was about 3 miles roundtrip. There was minimal complaining and Quinn was super proud of herself once we got to the summit and hung out at viewpoint enjoying the mountain views. 

Wednesday: Quinn wanted us to take her to DC so we could all touch the Washington Monument. We went in the middle of the day. It was crazy how empty it was. If you have ever been to DC in the summer, you know how many tourists there usually are, but it was almost like we had the place to ourselves. We visited the MLK memorial, WW2, Washington Monument, Lincoln memorial, and the Korean War memorial. We decided to quit while we were ahead and head back home because DC is also unbearably hot in the summer. 

Thursday: We planned to go to Pittsburgh for the weekend, but stopped off at Shenandoah again. We had planned to just do the first trail in the park, but when we got out of the car there was someone reporting a bear a few minutes down the trail to a park ranger. We decided to drive a little further in and ended up at the Land's Run trail. It ended at a nice little waterfall that made the steep downhill and uphill worth it. 

Pittsburgh: We were able to see lots of my family, enjoy cooler temperatures, celebrate Matt's birthday and my Grandma's birthday. It was a nice relaxing visit minus a 6:30 wake up call from Quinn which including a concert on the piano.

It was a great week and it was really nice to finally visit with family since we haven't seen anyone for the duration of pandemic. We are look forward to making Shenandoah a more regular visit since it's not that far. This is my last week of summer before my official contract starts. I'm hoping to squeeze in a little bit more excitement!

Safer at Home, The Weekend Edition

We had a great weekend over here. The weather was awesome. Friday, Virginia entered phase one - Safer at Home (instead of Stay at Home) - of reopening, which really means nothing exciting for me. Virginians are required to wear masks in public inside buildings now as well. Most things are still closed, or have very strict limitations/guidelines. There was also an HOA meeting last week to determine the fate of our community pools. You might know that I am a huge pool fan. For now the pool is remaining closed, and it will be re discussed when we enter phase 2. My prediction is that it will remain closed all summer. Which brings me to our weekend...we broke out the insurance policy...

POOL IS OPEN! I was trying not to open this thing, but I am so glad I finally did. This blow up pool has provided HOURS of entertainment for Quinn all weekend. Saturday was pretty warm out, so even I got in...today I refused, but she spent the afternoon in there entertaining herself. I will take this all summer. If you haven't been to my house, you should know that I don't have a backyard for this thing to go in. It's planted right in my front yard for all my neighbors to see what I am doing and all my packages to be delivered while I watch from my pool. Sorry Amazon driver, truly. It's awkward.

The Queen was even served her lunch poolside. Saturday was also exciting because we got groceries! We were pretty much out of everything, so this was very exciting. Sunday we did online church and then took a walk to the creek to go fishing. We had our first catch of the season! We also walked past the flamingos on the way home and they too were fishing. Hilarious.

This week is the last "teaching" week of the school year. I am also allotted a half day to go in and start the wrap up of the year and to close out my office/move out. I will also go back next week to finish what I can't get done. It should be super weird to go back in, and really to pack up my work life after so many months/years.

Friday Love

Happy Friday! Summer is flying by. We are headed north tomorrow to visit Matt's family and enjoy some vacation time. Our last vacation as a party of two. Yikes. Enjoy your weekend! 

{ONE}

Serial. I'm a little late to the game on this one. During my long walks in the morning I have been listening to Serial, the podcast. I'm so glad I did. It's so good! The first season, which came out last fall, chronicles the case of Adnan Syed who was convicted of murdering his high school girlfriend. It's so interesting to theorize about with other listeners. I'm looking forward to season two!

{TWO}

Bloodline. Matt and I needed a new Netflix show since the conclusion of Mad Men. We tried out Rectify, but it wasn't for us. We landed on Bloodline, and I'm pretty into it. It's not Breaking Bad, but it's been good to watch.

{THREE}

Garden Peppers. We had our first big bunch of peppers this week. I tried growing banana and jalapeno peppers this summer and I'm excited about how many we've had. I made stuffed peppers for dinner one night. I have never had a jalapeno so spicy. Seriously. Still delicious!

{FOUR}

Back to Basics. Penn State announced they are going back to no name jerseys this season! Yay for tradition! WE ARE!

{FIVE}

Pregnancy Advice. I can't say I've had too many weird things said to me yet, but I have heard a lot about the advice given at 1 minute into this video.