An Epic Weekend

Well dear readers, we certainly had an eventful weekend.  And to tell you all about it with the gusto in which it was experienced I have just consumed several cups of coffee and a pot of Earl Grey tea.  Which comes in at a very close third for my affections, after Jeremy and Elsbeth.

Jeremy got the crazy idea on Saturday morning that we should bike the entire length of the Capitol Crescent Trail.  All the way from Silver Spring, MD to Georgetown in D.C.  It's about 11 miles one way.  I was all, sure, but if I die on the way can you throw my bike and body on the metro and shuttle me home for a decent burial.  And make sure those undertakers don't make me look like a hooker!  

Jeremy was all, OH come on don't you think you can make it?  And I casually informed him that while it may be one thing for me to do a spinning class, this was an undertaking of another caliber, but I would try my best...as long as he let me have some ice cream.

So I agreed and then we set out and all the while in the back of my mind I was going DUN DUN DUN waiting for that Really big hill that I just wouldn't be able to huff it over.  But surprisingly that never happened.  The trail is stunning and there were so many people out enjoying the beautiful day.  My only problem was trying not to crash while admiring all of them.  
I have to say though, that the only problem I ever experience with my bike is when going over bumps in the road occasionally the skirt guard  pops loose and begins to rattle.  And while it is easily remedied, it can tend to be annoying.  Other than that, I still make passionate love to it in my dreams every day.
So we rode, and we rode, and we rode, and we passed the place in the photo above that rents canoes and kayaks on the Potomac.  It smelled like hamburgers and sunscreen and everything that is summer.  I wanted to stop and jump in the river, but I had no bathing suit.  I will remember that next time.
We finally made it to Georgetown and I got my ice cream.  Which was quickly hijacked by Elsbeth, but lucky for me she is a very giving little girl.  Jeremy asked me if I thought I could make it back and I said that actually I felt fine and thought I would have no problem.  Had the sugar gone to my brain already?  DUN DUN DUN
But I did it.  And I lived.  I did eat many small insects unwittingly on the ride back, but they were thankfully not of the crunchy variety.  When it was all said and done we had biked 24 miles in a couple of hours.  I was in the passionate throes of patting myself on the back when some killjoy had to go and say that he commutes that every day.  AND he was older than my Dad.  So I got in the car seat next to Ellie and we sucked our "fumbs" together because we're just widdle baby bikers.
The next day I was running up all of our stairs two at a time like an Olympian and Jeremy mentioned several times that he was sore and how he was impressed with my endurance and recovery.  Yeah, I said, you shoot a watermelon sized person out of your crotch and see what pales in comparison.  He was heard mumbling something to the effect of, Ummmmmm NO.
Then on Sunday after church we went to a local orchard to pick blackberries.  We picked about six pounds and I believe Ellie managed to eat three or four (AHEM, three of four POUNDS) that didn't make it into the bucket.
Then we took a hay ride because what's more fun on a sweltering summer day than sitting in a pile of itchy straw?  Come on?  Ellie had the hots for the tractor man who looked to be about 80 give or take a decade.  The made goo goo faces at one another while he drove the tractor WITHOUT LOOKING and I stood by suffering about a dozen mild strokes.
And then there was this slide.  Jeremy and Ellie rode it over and over and over and each time the grin on their faces was priceless.  I didn't get near it because I am still suffering from flashbacks of the time I fell of one of these as a child at the state fair.  Damn carnies.

And we did it all for less than thirty bucks.  Yes, I borrowed money from our parents.