weather

We have been super lucky with weather so far.  The rain and hail waited until we were leaving dinner the first night.  It was a torrential downpour. Then every day they predicted storms but we had sunny clear days,  Cool in the mornings.  A little hot and muggy when we were hiking around later in the day, but mostly very nice.  Yesterday was again a very nice day.  Cooler than NC. Again they are predicting rain and then snow.  We will see if that happens.  It seems very spring like with the flowers and the trees are starting to bloom.  But NC was weird since it seemed almost like summer but the trees looked like winter.  

eat hike eat

Breakfast at the hotel.

our hotel - we took a nice walk around the neighborhood.  There was a bike trail we could walk on. Then we drove to Fairfax to meet up with Lou and Paul, 2 high school classmate friends.

Lou, Paul, Nathan, George, me.  It was a delicious Indian restaurant.  It was very nice connecting with both of them.

Paul, me & Lou

Then we went to the Great Falls National Park.  Wow.  that was an impressive park.

We took a break so that Nathan could take care of some school work

We drove home to pick up Linda.  We met some friends for dinner at True Food Kitchen.  Full of healthy meals.  We picked up Linda on our way.

Linda, Nathan, Joan, Steve, Barbara and George

I had Moroccan chicken

A very good wine.  It was organic which was a plus

Steve and Joan

What a nice day with 2 great meals with long time friends and a great hike along the river. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day

After breakfast we checked out and started our drive to DC.  We stopped at the Occoneechee State Park.

We walked a short trail then drove to the lake where they had some picnic tables

We had sandwiches and left-overss.

We went down to the lake.

Family group photo - Rebecca is on the phone - does that count?

We drove on to Culpeper, VA to visit my cousin, Jim and his wife Debbie.  They are out in the middle of nowhere (sort of near Culpeper).  They are on 10 acres plot of land.  

They fed us a very nice dinner and then we headed on.  It took us a bit to get on the right road because we were not getting a phone signal so we could not check the GPS and the little roads were not on the paper map.  We just kept heading north until we finally got a signal.  The rest of the drive was uneventful.  

We got to the Comfort Inn, Arlington about 9 pm.  No glass of port and we did not buy any wine either.  Oh well.  

Wed March 16

This trip has been tough on Nathan because he still has a bunch of school details to finish up and we are here demanding his attention.  We have been fitting in some fun stuff.

Breakfast at the B & B, Nathan & I decided to try the special.  It was called the Southern Breakfast Bowl.  Grits topped with grilled vegetables, poached eggs, asiago cheese and crumbled bacon (Nathan had it without the bacon).   It was an interesting combination but not one I am likely to get again.  

George and I walked around the Duke Pond, or what Nathan calls the lagoon, while Nathan got some work done.  We got pretty close to a heron, before it flew off.

Then we headed off to the Eno State Park and walked the Laurel Ridge Trail.  Very pretty.  

I was surprised at how little underbrush there was.  

We walked to the quarry and then around it.  People come here to swim.  

A lot of turtles. 

vulture, what was it waiting for? 

We went to Parker and Otis for lunch.  A fabulous place.  I would come back. It was a soup/sandwich/salad place.  

very good tangerine beer

A lot of murals around

Then we went to Nathan's place.  

They are cat sitting a very adorable 3 month old kitten

We went on a walk around the neighborhood and then back to the school for another errand for Nathan.  Then we drove to Briar Creek for dinner.  Nell and Joe joined us.  This is a mall which is half way between Durham and Raleigh. Lots of food opportunities.  We picked an Indian restaurant.  I thought it was very good.  

grilled Salmon

Tandoori chicken

An Indian wine - Sula Shiraz

We sat outside for dinner.  Very pleasant.  I could definitely eat here again.  

What a nice day.  

Tues and 9 miles of walking

Nathan came over about 9 am to join us for breakfast at the B&B.  The special was chocolate chip waffles. Very good breakfast.  Then we headed off for a morning tour of the school.

I am very happy with this B&B.  I think we will plan to stay here at Nathan's graduation next year.

We drove over close to the school and parked at the garden.  These are metal irises in front of the garden gift shop.  

We walked to the school

Went through Nathan's school

A picture on the wall in the Nicholas school

a close up.  

This is the building where I went to PT school.  

On the way back to the car we had more time to wander through the beautiful garden

This white headed water fowl had a call that sounded like a peacock.  Strange.

We had to hurry back to the car because we had not had lunch and we had a 1 pm tour at the lemur center.  We made a quick stop at the Green Leaf for healthy wraps.  Mine was a very good panda wrap with spinach, pears, blue cheese, walnuts and cranberries with poppy seed dressing.  Once we got to the lemur center we watched a short video (this gave us time to eat our lunches) and then we took a walking tour. 

Duke has the highest number and most varieties of lemurs anywhere other than their native home of Madagascar.  They are prosimian primates. 

looks like a raccoon but it is a monkey, a ring tail lemur

very cute monkeys.  This one is a red ruff lemur.  After visiting the lemurs we went to Ben & Jerry's

Interesting restroom sign.  It looks like polygamy is ok.  

Then we went to find with the school of Physical Therapy is now.  It is a doctorate program.  Much bigger than when I went to Duke.  We saw a class of "12 year old" students.  Gosh they get younger every year. I could not take a picture because there were patients in the room as well.  The supervisor took us on a little tour.  That was nice.  Very impressive.

gorgeous day to be out walking a round but I was starting to drag so we went for hard cider tasting at a very interesting place.

the 2 on the right were my favorite. Sweet Carolina Smooth Hoperator and the Honey Sweet American IPA.

they had a large Jenga set there.  we had fun with that

Oh NO!!

Then it was time for dinner.  We went to Blu Seafood.  Yummy.  Nathan had salmon, George had trout and you guessed it,  I had steak with an Oregon Pinot Noir.  

Nathan dropped us off.  He still has school work to do.  We found our nightly glasses of port and chocolate truffles waiting for us.  Gosh I like this place.