Capon Springs

 The road to Capon Springs requires a mandatory stop at Woodbine Farms in the foothills of the Shenandoah Mountains

The first afternoon at Capon Springs requires a hike up to the ridge on the WV-VA border

This year Claire and co. joined us

Katy was pleased that we were upgraded to a big table in the dining room

 64-degree water was fine for Erin and Charlie

and the fireplace warmed us in the morning

Erin's homework for missing class was to find evidence of tree-rifting

and frost wedging


Solid and liquid gaseous fossil fuels, side-by-side!

Driving back to DCA was too simple a plan compared to finding NPS sites in the hinterlands of PA. Getting there required traversing WV and its GPS-impenetrable mountains. With this map we made our way northwest out to PA. 

Fort Necessity was where young George Washington hunkered down after skirmishing with a band of French soldiers during the French and Indian War. He later returned under a British general and as we learned from Hamilton, led his men straight into a massacre and witnessed their deaths firsthand.

Bobblehead George came along to witness firsthand the girls completing the Jr Ranger booklet

Hey look, there's April 19, 1775, a glorious morning for America

Get your arms off of my daughter, Mister Sampey

Next was Friendship Hill, the homestead of Albert Gallatin, who served as Secretary of the Treasury under James Madison. I guess he liked sextants, too, but why his 18th century home on the Monongahela River deserves a NPS site is beyond me.

It would have been infinitely more entertaining to tour this nearby nuclear plant on the Monongahela

On our way out of the Pittsburgh airport, we found 2 statues honoring local heroes.
The first, young GW.

and the 2nd is Franco Harris in the midst of his Immaculate Reception from a 1972 Steelers playoff game

Fall 2018

The girls decked out for the Hamiltunes sing-along at our town hall 

and we harvested our biggest pumpkin yet, 28 lbs 

We put them in the garage to harden off. Ever wonder why the local pumpkin patch doesn't have fruit on the vine come "picking" time in October? Because pumpkins ripen in September! 

Our town conservation land offered pick-your-own apples from their native, organic trees. This was as good as they came. 

but they made excellent cider 

Tessie started kindergarten soccer and has a dominant left foot 

 Erin tried out cone feet

We released our last cycle of monarchs in mid Sep, doubtful that they'll make it down to Mexico in time

Topsfield Fair had another giant gross pumpkin 

 This was another record-breaker

 Erin competed in her first cross-country races with a local club team

At the Mayor's Cup in Boston, her team earned 3rd place, and then later in the afternoon she won her elementary school 5K race. Double-bling!

 When Grandma visited, the girls practiced sewing on paper towels

Tessie figured out the monkey bars