It’s Labor Day weekend here in the US. The unofficial end of Summer. Boy, has this summer flown! The best thing about Labor Day weekend is that Monday is a holiday. Three-day weekends are always, ALWAYS welcome.
Today, we set out on our motorcycles from the WV Place to visit some new neighbors/old friends.
Our long-time buds, Kathy and Barry Spice, bought a chunk of land a bit north and west of Cumberland, MD. It’s only about a 35-mile drive from us. Which is cool. I call it the Spice Mountain Retreat. In my head anyway. I’m not sure what they’ll call it. But I think Spice Mountain Retreat has a nice ring to it. Sort of like they own a mountain on which they built (or are going to build) a retreat.
They have just started clearing a “driveway.” They have their work cut out for them. It’s a great piece of land in a very nice location, but it is a bit overgrown.
They spent the morning using weed whackers to clear a path. They’d like to be able to access the place easily enough to camp there this Fall. That’s Hubby waving in the above picture.
There’s a nice view from their driveway, too.
Here’s the happy couple with their faithful pal, Max. Since we rode our motorcycles to visit, we didn’t get to take Meg and Belle along.
Max would have enjoyed their company. He was happy enough hanging out with us humans, but nothing beats canine companions. Especially when they’re girls.
Speaking of girls… Hubby snapped this shot of Kathy Spice (on the left) and me. We don’t have many pics of the two of us together. It isn’t bad, either. Especially considering that I have helmet head and she’d been weed whacking all morning.
We’re hoping to do some more riding tomorrow. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous. We need to take advantage of it while we can.
If you read yesterday’s post, you might have been expecting to see a very detailed post about our visit to Washington, DC. You know, where I show you a picture of a building and tell you all about its history, what goes on there, etc.
Well, sorry to disappoint you, but that’s not what you’re going to see. Because I know diddly about Washington, DC. I did take lots of nice snapshots, though.
Lucky for us, the weather was gorgeous. See for yourself in the pics posted below…
Annelies and Yves in front of the Washington Monument. I should have asked them how tired they were of my asking, “Do you want me to take a picture of the two of you here?” And saying, “Come on, this is the White House, the Washington Monument, the body of water where Forrest Gumpwas filmed, etc. You have to get a picture of the two of you in front of it.”
They were actually very good sports. About the pushy picture thing and the fact that I really don’t know much at all about Washington, DC. Despite the fact that, according to Google Maps, I live just over 31 miles, by car, from The White House. Pathetic eh? Wanna know what’s worse? I am 42 years old. I have lived in Maryland pretty much all of my life. I like to travel and see stuff. Yet Tuesday was the very first time I EVER saw The White House in person.
It’s a pretty building.
I am also 95% sure I’d never been inside the US Capitol.
We got lucky and happened into the Capitol a mere eight minutes before the last tour of the day. We actually got to go inside, stand in the rotunda, and look up at the underbelly of the infamous dome. It was magnificent.
And, as much as I hate politics and history (as evidenced by the fact that I didn’t know if Ulysses S. Grant was ever a US president), it was really kind of cool to be inside the actual building where so much history has taken place. Where so many monumental decisions have been made.
The highlight of the day for me was the Library of Congress. As we were leaving the Capitol, Annelies either saw the sign for or heard someone mention a tunnel that takes you from the Capitol to the Library of Congress.
“Wanna go?” she asked. Neither Yves nor I really wanted to. After all, we’d already walked the 700 kilometers from the Lincoln Memorial at one end of the Mall to the Capitol (I’m an idiot when it comes to metric units of measure, too). But we agreed. And I am so very glad we did. I had no idea the place was so incredibly cool on the inside…
I mean, really. Look at this.
I have never seen so much colorful marble in one place in my life. And the ceilings and walls were covered with frescos and mosaics.
Just look at all the cool color and architectural details. Amazing…
There’s Yves, on the bench at bottom center, waiting for Annelies and I yet again.
It really was a fun day. On the way home, we stopped at my favorite gargantuan liquor store. I just had to show them how ridiculously large it is. After that, we made a quick stop at the house to get Hubby then went out for a very tasty dinner of Mexican food. We all got fajitas. As usual, the service was poor, but the food was well worth it.
Hubby and I both really enjoyed having Annelies and Yves visit. Eric got to meet them both, too, and hang out with us two nights in a row while we chatted and laughed about various things.
Hubby couldn’t stop saying nice stuff about the two of them. For someone who usually doesn’t like people, that says a lot. He noted that Annelies and I are alike in a lot of way and said we could almost be sisters. He also pointed out that she and I both talk kind of fast. Yves and Hubby both talk sort of slow. As you can imagine, the boys had trouble getting those periodic words in while we chattered on and on.
All in all, it was a great time. We were all disappointed to see them go. I have never been so sad to see house guests leave before. Now we need to hurry up and plan a trip to Europe so we can visit them on their home turf.
Hi all. Sorry it’s been a few days since my last post. The weekend at the WV Place was pretty uneventful. Monday I was busy getting ready for some out-of-town guests to arrive. And Tuesday, yesterday, I was showing said out-of-town guests the beauty of Washington, DC.
The guests I am speaking of are Annelies, a coworker friend, and her boyfriend, Yves. They are from Belgium. They’ve been touring the northeastern corner of the US for a few weeks. They stopped here for a couple of nights to visit. And because I promised to take them to DC.
As you can see from the above image, it was a gorgeous day. We could not have prescribed better weather. We got to see lots of stuff, too.
I’ll give you more details later. I actually have to work today (BOO!). I have lots of pics to share. And some stories, of course.
I just wanted to post a quick update so you wouldn’t be too worried.
Hubby and I have enjoyed their visit immensely. More to come later…
Our long-time buds, Kathy and Barry Spice, bought a chunk of land a bit north and west of Cumberland, MD. It’s only about a 35-mile drive from us. Which is cool. I call it the Spice Mountain Retreat. In my head anyway. I’m not sure what they’ll call it. But I think Spice Mountain Retreat has a nice ring to it. Sort of like they own a mountain on which they built (or are going to build) a retreat.
They have just started clearing a “driveway.” They have their work cut out for them. It’s a great piece of land in a very nice location, but it is a bit overgrown.
They spent the morning using weed whackers to clear a path. They’d like to be able to access the place easily enough to camp there this Fall. That’s Hubby waving in the above picture.
There’s a nice view from their driveway, too.
Here’s the happy couple with their faithful pal, Max. Since we rode our motorcycles to visit, we didn’t get to take Meg and Belle along.
Max would have enjoyed their company. He was happy enough hanging out with us humans, but nothing beats canine companions. Especially when they’re girls.
Speaking of girls… Hubby snapped this shot of Kathy Spice (on the left) and me. We don’t have many pics of the two of us together. It isn’t bad, either. Especially considering that I have helmet head and she’d been weed whacking all morning.
