Camping...second weekend in a row!

This last Friday I went camping...yes second week in a row and it was some good stuff! Largely in part of the food that we had. I swear everything tastes better when it is cooked in the fire...you could even cook some weavels in a fire and it would taste good. We only hiked in a mile from the car but with all our gear it worked out a'ight. We got there with an hour to go before sundown. We pitched our tent and gathered some wood to start the fire. Cassie made these tinfoil dinners that were absolutely money. After that, we made rolls that we roasted on sticks, banana boats and peach cobbler. Yeah, we ate like kings. We then crashed into my 1.5 capacity Spooner Sooner tent and went to bed. We arose to the sound of a symphony of birds at seven. We started another fire and cooked our breakfasts. These things were so tasty...better than the dinner. They had taters, sausage and eggs with cheese on top. I can say without hyperbole that this was the best I have ever had. We then packed up our things and headed home. Being down in the commonwealth, I had to stop off at Wegmanns to get four, count em, four boxes of donut holes. The camping was some good stuff and I'm halfway thinking about going for the turkey...three weekends in a row!

After getting home, it was such a nice day out that I had to get out. I met up with Destiny and we went for a bike ride down Rock Creek. We did the whole trail...about 25 miles. We ended up in Georgetown from Rockville and stopped off at Trader Joes and got some Ben and Jerry's ice cream as we pounded the whole thing as we sat in a park. I didn't even feel guilty one bit for eating that huge thing. Biking back I was feeling it a bit but I'd do it again if I had the chance!

Tonight I went to this presentation/screening/roundtable at the REI store here in Rockville. I bought these tickets expecting to see more of a movie but it turned out to be more of a presentation. But this thing was money. This guy, Chris Warner, is known throughout the world as one of the better high altitude climbers. He talked about his experience climbing K2 last summer where NBC filmographers filmed he and his crew going up the mountain. They were up there with many people from all over the world. Many summitted as it was the highest number of people that summitted in one year, all did it in one day. He talked about bad weather, death, lack of food, greed, deceit, heroics, personal accomplish, style and so much more made this an incredible story to hear. It reminded me of climbing Kili in 2006 and how I want to get back on a mountain...hopefully Elbrus!

This ain't no petting zoo!

So this last weekend, I went camping out on Assateague Island. Yeah, I too thought that this was a cuss word until I moved out here. This is a skinny island off the coast of Maryland where you can camp on the beach. Yes, camp on the bizzeach. I booked a spot last month and have been looking forward to it ever since. Everyone in my original group bailed on me but that didn't slow me down. I went out with some other peeps that alreay going to be in Ocean City and staying in a hotel. I was able to pull a few and get them to camp on the beach. Another cool thing about this little gem is that there are wild horses that roam the island freely. Okay, so maybe they're called stallions. I actually tamed one, road it bareback along the soft sands of the beach, as I rode shirtless. Okay, so maybe that's a stretch but these horses were everywhere. Being a National Park, I felt like I was back in Yellowstone looking for grizzly bears as I did for so many summers growing up. This place was off the food chain. I've already got my next tripped planned out there where you can rent canoes and canoe back into this canoe-only campground further down the island. After cruising the island, we went back to Ocean City and I went for a long run along the boardwalk and checked out all the trash in Ocean City...and I'm not talking about litter. After the Thrasher's Fries, we were off and back to DC.

Kickin it Family Style

So this last weekend, my dad and Rebecca came out to spend a weekend together, DC style. My dad hadn't been here in close to two years so it was good to see him and so he could get a sense of what DC is like for me. We spent quite a bit of time downtown as you can see here as we caught the tail end of the cherry blossoms.

The next day, my dad rented a bike and the two of us hit up the Capital Crescent Trail as we biked from Bethesda to G-town and over through Rosslyn. It was some sweet nectar as I always love getting on a bike.

My dad then ran into Hilary and convinced to get in a photo with her and her pant-suits.

Doing the standard cherry blossom pose along the Tidal Basin. This was like the best tree as the blossoms were slowly floating away.

Taking a quick snooze as Rebecca gets her shop on at Anthropology in G-town. Not the funnest thing to do....I'm not gonna lie.

One of the bonuses when two visitors come out to visit me is that we all get to cram into my truck. With my dad and my sister, it makes for a tight fit. The best way to rig it is to have my dad drive and needless to say it was not fun tooling around DC in that small of space but hey, we're family right?

We hit up 2 Amys for some kind pizza of course, donut and a hole...I already ate the hole!

Here we are kicking in in Chinatown after our money dinner at Indeblue. We all had some kind grub but when my dad ordered the pan-seared tuna, we were a little surprised. When the food came, he looked at it and wondered why it wasnt cooked all the way through. The server was nice and offered to cook it all the way through. Needless to say, it was still money in the cash bank.

Here we are kickin outside talking to Colton getting the skinny.

Here Rebecca is doing what she does best...being a tool as she asked for photos every other minute. But I guess I am used to it after these years.

When all the dust settled, it was a great weekend and was glad we could all kick it. Ever if I had to wake up at 4:30 this morning to take Rebecca to Dulles and my dad to BWI and squeeze in a full days work. You know I'm going to sleep like a Siberian minx. Click on Rebecca's link to get another perspective on the weekend:

http://www.ruby30.blogspot.com/