A fun Day!

Today was a very fun day. I took the kiddos to Maryland's Sugarloaf mountain.

On the way there we had to cross the Potomac without a bridge. It was our first time to take our car on a ferry. We crossed from Virginia to Maryland at White's Ferry Crossing. Perrissa was very excited. She chattered and talked about everything the ferry was doing as it went across (we had just missed it) and came back to pick us up. Pearce was quiet but smiling and absorbing every detail. I had the kids unbuckle their seatbelts so that wouldn't be necessary in case there was any need to get out of the car.

We then went on up to Sugarloaf mountain. Pearce was certain we had passed under Thomas' the Train's bridge. We had gone under a C&O railroad bridge. C&O was the first railroad of any length ever built in the US, or so we found out. Sugarloaf mountain was a very interesting site. It isn't anything to compare to the Sandia Mountains of Albuquerque, but it did provide for some nice views and good hiking. The mountain is 1280 or so feet high at it's peak giving it a rise of about 800ft above the surrounding terrain. It was cool in the early afternoon, but the kiddos braved climbing up the green path to the peak. Took us about 30 minutes to get there from the west parking lot. Then we walked down the red path and turned left on the blue path to go back to the parking lot. Monkee and Poppa were waiting for us there. It was a good bit of exercise. The mountain stands out all by itself, unlike most mountains. It was fought over during the Civil War for use as a signal station. For more info on the mountain, check it out here... I can see the "hill" from my office window and I thought it would be fun for the kids and I to go there. I was right.

Next we headed to DC at Perrissa's request. We got there and I looked for The Brickskeller. When we finally walked into it at 4:15pm we discovered it didn't open until 6pm. Just enough time to visit Thomas Jefferson's Memorial. Perrissa bought a book while we were there that she can use in her home schooling. Then we headed back to The Brickskeller and enjoyed a very empty pub. Pete and I enjoyed some of the over 1200 beers that are available here. They included: Belhaven Scottish Ale from Scotland, MacTarnahan's Highlander Pale Ale from the US, and MaDonna WhiteBeer from Romania. Each were very good in their own right.


Ah, two day weekends are too short. Time to hit the rack and get some rest.