Almost Forgot

to mention - we're going back to Canaan in September to learn Rock Climbing - and to climb this:

Seneca Rocks.

Hooah.

Last Day

For any Logan's Run fans out there - "Last Day, Capricorn 29's. Year of the City: 2274. Carousel begins."

And I think the SigO would swear he was on a carousel - a really, really fast one - similar to the spin cycle in a washing machine.

It couldn't have begun any more idyllic. The weather was gorgeous. The river was beautiful,

and once again, we got the guide we both wanted: Bruno.

Bruno promised a great ride, and to make it even better, the only people who would be on the river would be our little excursion company. That probably doesn't resonate that strongly for anyone who has never done the New River, or the American River, at the height of season - basically, pick your favorite traffic jam and apply it to white water rafting and you have these rivers. The Cheat River isn't nearly as commercial. The rapids on the Cheat are II - IV (with the IV being closer to a III), but they come one right after the other, as opposed to long stretches of flat water. Don't get me wrong, I still love the New River, but the Cheat is just as fun, and much closer.

To top things off, the SigO and I had Bruno all to ourselves in a small little raft.

Pro: We got along great and laughed all the way down the river.

Con: We rode very high in the water as we were so few. Result:

That's my head and Bruno's head next to the raft. The SigO was in the spin cycle under the raft, trying desperately to get out. When he finally did, he looks around and can't see me anywhere. Naturally, he assumes I'm going thru the same craziness he just survived and immediately begins to fear for the worst. The river guides are probably still poking fun at the guy who kept screaming out "Jo! Jo!! Jo!!!" Poor guy. Little did he know I was floating along on the other side of the raft, enjoying the cold water (felt great on the knee), waiting for Bruno to flip the raft over. Not a care in the world. I knew the SigO was big and strong and would fare fine. I admit to a moment's worry when Bruno got the raft flipped and I was pulled in and still no sign of my honey. Of course, he was hanging out, waiting his turn to be pulled on. So, see, I was right. Big. Strong. Hunky. But I digress.

The rest of the river was still a fun ride,

but nothing as crazy as "Calamity Rock", where we got to go for our little swim.

Another great part of that excursion was one of the ladies in the other group - who was "Very Scared". So scared, she had a few tears in her eyes prior to taking off. You can barely see her in this picture, she's in the back, on the right side of the boat,but trust me, at the end of the trip, she was smiling big.

You'd think we'd be hard pressed to find entertainment to match that incredible morning, but this is Canaan Valley - there's never a shortage of fun and beauty. So, after luch, we went on an adventure, trying to find a trail Bruno recommended for a nice hike. Otter Creek National Forest. In all honesty, the hike was beautiful, what with the suspension bridge,

and winding river,but really, the drive along River Road was beyond compare. The mountains in the background.

The hilltops that look right out of Scotland,

and the water sparkling off the river.

Not to mention the barns!!!

Can't be beat!

Finally, since this blog is supposed to be at least a little bit about knitting - I finished my MaggiKnits jacket.

Love, Love, Love it!! I need to start knitting with wool a LOT more.

Sharp Rock Spring Fest this Saturday.

Vintage Virginia this Sunday.

Oh, and I plan to squeeze in a trip to Fiber Space on Saturday to check out the new "techno" yarn from Blue Sky Alpaca. Baby Alpaca, Merino, and Silk. It looks way yummy. Plus: "baby alpaca is blown into a mesh tube of silk for really fast knitting with virtually no splitting." Doesn't that sound awesome? And I love the neon colors. No idea whatsoever what I'm going to do with it, but that's beyond the point, right?

Spectacular Weekend - Day Two

We woke up with the sun streaming in through our windows. Let's be clear - waking up to the sunrise...not something we would normally elect to do. But the entire front of the cabin consists of windows and faces east - there is no sleeping in when we stay there. Just as well. There's too much to see and do in Canaan to sleep in.

After a nice leisurely breakfast, we hit the road and headed to Spruce Knob Lake. You drive up and up and up to get to this lake which is surrounded by hiking trails and nice wide dirt roads. I still don't like highly technical bike rides - I want to bump around on dirt with the option to ride over rocks and roots, but I don't want to take my life in my hands when I'm on a bicycle. I do that enough in rush hour traffic every day. The ride was billed as "easy" and only 10 miles. We were talking about possibly doing it twice, as it was a loop, but as soon as we headed out, it immediately headed downhill. And we all know, what goes down, must come back up. So, doing it twice lost its appeal from that moment, and instead, we decided to just ride around, where ever - which naturally means we got a little lost - nothing we couldn't back track from and boy was it great that we did. The scenery on this ride was breath taking.

Rivers

Surrounded by mountains

Vistas from on high

and hot boyfriends bumping along beside me (yeah - really behind me - I was being kind).

After lunch, we headed to Blackwater Falls State Park, where we always go play around the smaller falls of Elakala. You may remember seeing us peeking from behind a wall of ice last year. SigO is standing in the same spot where we were peeking thru in that blog.Only one disappointment of the weekend: We were trying to see the forests in bloom with rhododendrons - which are just everywhere. I can only imagine what these trails look like when they're in bloom --- yes --- I can only imagine - as even though it was almost June, they still weren't blooming yet.

dirty rotten bastards.

more tomorrow.

Too good for one post

This was definitely one of the best weekends I've had in a long time. Too good to document in just one post. So, instead, I'll do a post for each day.

Day one was really just arriving in Canaan Valley. We made very good time, and arrived by 1800. Plenty of time to unwind and enjoy a nice, quiet evening.

We stayed in the Royale Cabin,

which, I think, is laid out nicer than the other cabins.

We made ourselves at home right away - you gotta love a cabin that has a wine rack all ready for me to stash my wine.
Even the yarn enjoyed the cabin. It had to move around a bit to decide which position it liked best. In the end, it decided it liked the pedestal - a place of honor it felt was well deserved.

Plus, it has a great view of the barn right outside the window. You know how we love barns.

After settling in, we sat out on the porch in the rockers,

chatting for a bit before retiring out to the jacuzzi, and eventually topping off the evening with a yummy steak dinner, some sparkling wine, and desserts somewhat smooshed from the trip down, but still 'lishy (SigO talk for delicious). A nice peaceful start to an exciting weekend.

More tomorrow.

Field Trip

Friday, one of my coworkers suggested we spend lunch strolling the grounds of Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna, VA. An excellent suggestion as the day was beautiful and it's always nice to get out of the office for a minute.

Here are some pictures of the gardens.

The bell of Peace and Harmony donated by the Koreans:

From Afar
Really, really close

Dragon head on top.

There were some incredible peonies in bloom - and we all know I have a soft spot for peonies.

For a while, we stood out on a deck in the middle of the lake and watched the turtles and koi swim around. This is the view from the deck.

Then we headed over to the kiddie garden - that I couldn't play in, cuz I had to go back to poopy old work and I would have gotten all dirty. Poo.

On the way out, and back to the grind, we passed this miniature garden. Way cool.

We've all sworn we're going to do this again soon, but I suspect it will take Dario to get us out there again. Go, Dario, Go!!

New River

Well, we got to go White Water Rafting again this year. I didn't sit in the front like I did last time, and it's not nearly as breathtaking.

Next time, I'm definitely back up front.
Once again, we managed to stay in the boat the entire time, although SigO did his best to go for a swim. The boat tipped up on the side we were sitting on and I was sure we were going over. SigO had a special little moment with the guy sitting next to him at the front of the boat. After they were done making out, SigO pulled him back into the boat and we were back on our way.

After we were finished braving Class III - V rapids, we rushed back to the cabin and jumped in the jacuzzi with an ice-cold Stella. It really doesn't get much better than that.

And now, to the irony. After surviving the "dangerous" rapids, we went to Pies & Pints on a recommendation for dinner. We had planned on eating there, but there was a girl at a nearby table who could have shattered glass with the shrillness of her voice. We were both ready for some peace and quiet, so we took our pizza to go and headed back to the cabin. By this time, it had been raining for about 30 minutes, and it was coming down pretty steady. Naturally, not only did I not want to get wet, but I didn't want the pizza to get wet either, so we rushed up to the door as quickly as I could hobble on this knee, and sure enough, my feet slid out from underneath me on the slick wood of the deck. My right leg went flailing out and I came crashing down on my left knee. Fun times. Isn't it just the way that I survive Class V rapids, but can't survive a trip across a 10foot deck.

The knee is fine. Never fear. It stung pretty good for a while there though.

We came home the next day and started cleaning up the house that we had left messy in our haste to get outta Dodge. And wouldn't you know it, first the dishwasher refused to drain and started leaking into our newly refurbished kitchen. Then our washing machine overflowed the sink drain and water went rushing all over the laundry room. Nothing like home sweet home huh?

I think SigO summed it up best when he pointed out that "Logistics Of Life" has the same acronym as "Laughing Out Loud".

Appropriately so.

Spoils of MS&W

What a great weekend!
First, Anya and I were both a bit trepidatious about our knees holding up for an 18 mile bike ride, but not only did we both hold up just fine, we both decided we needed to do more of it, because our knees felt better afterwards. And it couldn't have been a better day for a ride. Beautiful weather, beautiful friends, sexy boyfriend...oops, sorry - back on topic. I guess I haven't even mentioned where we rode - we wanted to do the Mt. Vernon trail, but not an out and back. So, we parked one car in DC, and the other in Mt. Vernon and off we went. As I say, it couldn't have been a prettier day for it.

But, we got a late start. And by the time we were finished, chances of us making our dinner reservations were slim to none. So, on the way back to the car parked at Mt. Vernon, we started brainstorming where to eat. We were cruising down Washington St., just past King street in Old Town when we remembered this great little Italian restaurant SigO and I had eaten at before. Both of us immediately went heads down to our iPhone to try to remember where it was and what it was called when Jim (Anya's squeeze) pipes up: "Is this it?" Purely random. He just noticed a restaurant up ahead a little ways. We look up from our iPhone, and in stereo: "YES!!" You probably had to be there to appreciate how surreal it was, especially after hearing how often Jim and Anya had been lost in the surrounding area for the past two days. The restaurant is called Trattoria da Franco and has some of the most authentic Italian food I've eaten here in the U.S. Needless to say, the four of us had a wonderful meal with wonderful conversation.
Sunday, I finally went to Maryland Sheep and Wool (MS&W) fest. I've never gone before - to me, it's like being an alcoholic in a bar - and I'm just not as strong as Sam Malone. But, Anya was here, and I wanted to spend as much time with her as possible, so I took one for the team (yeah, right). Even better, I managed to convince the SigO to come along - ladies, here's the trick: Wait until morning, when he's moving out of heavy sleep and into almost ready to wake up. Then go down, kiss him sweetly and say "Are you sure you don't want to come with me today?" He'll be so befuddled, he'll pretty much agree before really knowing what he's agreeing to. Worked for me, anyway.

At the fest, we found lots of great vendors, looked at lambs ranging from newborn to almost grown, watched the border collies do their thing herding up the sheep, oh, and bought a little bit of yarn. Hardly worth mentioning.... yeah - I'm gonna need another storage bin.
So, as I said, a wonderful weekend. Here's to more like it - but cheaper.