This is me

Annoying: they are burning off all the vegetation on an empty lot. Stunk up the neighborhood for two days

some of my lilies

backless dress

my new glasses: not as colorful as I remember them being

ceramic mermaid for my hallway

woven paper art

I have to stop buying up fancy dresses in which I have no place to wear them. I did get a sensible sun dress which I will wear much more often. And as you can probably tell, I can't weigh one more pound and fit into that dress. I haven't lost all my winter weight yet though I am close. 5 more pounds and I will not go any lower.

Saskatoon berries. At a nearby apple orchard there was a sign for U-pick Saskatoon berries

???????

A new one for me. I looked them up. A relative of an apple, they are small as a blueberry and taste somewhat like them. They are a variety of service berry, which I had two trees full of until the various wildlife cleaned me out. As they are charging $5/pint to pick them, it would take 2 pints for a pie. I think I will stick to rhubarb for tomorrow's pie for the moms.

As we are entering a heat wave again, back to biking versus running. I was up at 5:30 to beat the workday traffic.

Later today: horse back riding for Maya's birthday. Hopefully she won't freak out.

Bubble wrapped kids

Google 'enhanced' my Ohiopyle bridge photo  

and that of the silver tree on the Mall

Hannah enjoying playground equipment  Later we took her to see baby farm animals. She was not a fan

Allie

a pensive Maya

big smile. She turns 8 Sunday. Her hair has never been cut. If you were to pull a strand down, it would go to the middle of her back

Several times Josh has told me that  though he was glad the way we raised him, he will never let his girls roam the neighborhood like we allowed him to.  A mixed compliment if I ever heard one: yeah you guys were great but we aren't going to do what you did.He admits all his buddies' parents let them wander too otherwise he would have no one to play with unless we arranged 'playdates' in advance.

He is not alone apparently according to a recent Wall Street Journal article. Kids these days get much less freedom than their parents who in turn got less freedom than their parents ie. my generation. Are there more child molesters out there? More speeding, drunk driving cars? More gangs? Is it too hard to learn to look both ways before crossing a street? The downside to all this over protectedness is that there is now a increase in anxiety disorders with the constant reminders on how dangerous it is out there. And there are laws in some states saying you can not send a sub twelve year old to a park by himself. Age that a kid can walk to school by themselves? Ten according  the College of Pediatrics. Age that I walked myself to school? Five.

When I was four, I wandered around all day by myself. I assume my mom was busy with my baby brother. It was a small town and I was told never to cross this one particularly busy street, which I did as things were more interesting on the other side. Only once did someone ask how old I was and why wasn't I in school.. They said I was way too young and too far from home so I was walked back. My mom just shrugged.

No I didn't let my kids do this when they were so young but after they were 7 or so, they were free to explore our neighborhood as long as they came back at a set time.

I have decided to do the bike ride by myself to stop from feeling sorry for myself. I will know people there as lots of them return year after year. And I do make friends fairly easily. And I am in good shape so I am doing it though I don't think there is a town up north I haven't been to  We are doing the top of the mitten: Charlevoix, Petoskey, Mackinaw City, Cheybogan and Onaway. Lots of lakes including Lake Huron and Michigan.

We took Hannah and Allie to an animal farm full of baby animals. Allie likes them but Hannah screamed in terror.

the solstice

These will be my new 'fun' glasses. Not the thriftiest of choices. I had already picked out some reasonable frames at Costco but bowed to pressure from a very good saleslady. You look like a fun person, don't you want to have fun glasses too. This photo doesn't show all the bright colors, mainly orange, in the frame Once I have them in hand, I will have another photo with them and my new op art backless dress that I splurged on later that day

Tessa and her pet hamster who I will be watching soon

Steve thinks my crow flag will scare the birds away. I do have a cat flag too but that is suspended over the kids' area in the basement

Downhill from here; the days will get shorter and shorter. I've been out the door before 6 am to try to beat the heat though today, the high was only 70.

I still have made no plans for the summer. And one very tentative plan fell through putting me into pity party mode briefly. Still deciding about the bike ride. I have a week to ponder.

Extra fun: I have poison ivy yet again but a very mild case. I did chop some down wearing gloves and removing and disposing of the gloves carefully. Maybe I just looked at it too long.

Steve was supposed to be on jury duty last week, federal court no less, which meant going to Detroit. He filled out all the paperwork but then forgot to call on the day requested. He remembered more than a week later. Fortunately he was not needed or as the paper warns, there would be a warrant for his arrest.We have been getting these delightful calls lately as has most of the country saying that we are on a list of lawbreakers and unless we call this number, the local law enforcement will arrest us in 24 hours. Well in his case, that would be true.

I have been seeing friends to keep myself entertained and tackling the garden, which still needs more weeding.. My squash are half sized now and I have green tomatoes. Lettuce and swiss chard have been harvested but are still growing.

The heat is on

I have 4 lush heads of romaine in my garden

Maltese cross

Allie appears to be blinking here as the still shot has  her with her eyes closed.

Maya doing the splits. She finally did lose her other top central incisor but looks strange as now she has just one enormous tooth in the empty space

from the GAP website. When we went across this, it was raining

On Father's Day afternoon, when I scheduled a  BBQ, it was 97 degrees with a heat index well over 100. Hard to get people outside even though we had shade. Maya was with her father and Hannah was home sick with her mother. Still it was nice to have the 4 grandkids over who played well together along with our 3 kids. I harvested half a shopping bag of Swiss chard which when cooked, shrunk down to less than 2 cups. I was on the road by 5:30 am, already 70 degrees, which is fine for biking. I had to travel 4 miles before it was light enough to see my odometer. I had my flashers on so if there were any cars on the road, not very many, they would see me. As it was sunny, I had to go my complete loop which means dirt roads for my eastern trip, which is tree lined and blocks the sun out of my eyes. If I took the paved road, drivers would be blinded by the sun and not see me.

I've ridden over 120 miles since I came back, mainly because it was too hot to run. Still trying to decide whether I want to go on my bike trip up north all by myself. I am sure there will be familiar faces. I did the GAP on an organized tour 5 years ago by myself (a friend was supposed to go with me) and it turned out fine.

How awful can Trump and Sessions be? There is biblical precedence for separating children from their mothers? And his blackmail: pay for the wall or I keep them locked up. And then he said it was all the Democrats fault for putting the kids in cages. 

trees of life

A black and white version of a short tunnel we went through. Had to remember not to look at the end of it or I would be blinded

she is so expressive

subject of our cooking class: vinaigrettes

and marinades or using low fat seasonings to avoid fattier ones Salads were good

George Washington had Sweet Williams too

foxglove

my garden grew so much while I was gone even though I took out about 20 swiss chard plants. I will harvest the romaine and more of the chard tomorrow for our Father's Day bbq

Asiatic lilies finally in bloom

my favorite bird is back now that we have service berries

Cedar waxwings. All fruit diet whereas orioles supplement theirs with insects and seeds

Half way point of the C&O canal a week after we would have been on it. Well at least some of the path is visible

I surveyed my gardens 8 days after I had left for my bicycle adventure. How things had grown including the weeds. The ripening service berries (I have a tree in front and in back) have attracted flocks of cedar waxwings and robins. I see the chipmunks, catbirds, orioles, wood peckers and even the grosbeaks eating them too. Yes I still have orioles, around 5 of them so I have been diligent about giving them grape jelly. Usually they are gone by now but maybe they will next nearby. What hasn't come back are my wrens. I have 3 houses and they are usually full. Wrens are little plain birds but they sing so nicely and eat the beetles in my garden.

It's been hot and humid, hard for running but OK for biking as long as I am out early. Will I do another bike ride this summer? Still deciding. Just don't want to be by myself. I am sort of at loose ends as I have nothing planned. But if I decide to go, I will be in shape.

I have found stuff to amuse me: Happy hour with the Moms where I had too much of a prickly pear grande margarita: visit to the dentist (no cavities, yay!) cooking class, resale shop while I tend to home improvement projects. Naomi has started a new career as a line cook. Fortunately she is good with her hands and is a quick learner. The pay is much better than her old job who cut her hours because they did not want to accommodate Maya's school schedule, Boo on them.

And school is out for summer.

The O-line

This is the road we would have needed to take to get out of the flooded sections around Paw Paw West Virginia so we had to bail

5 inches in a day on top of 10 inches in the previous weeks will do this

From the train station on the East side of DC, we crossed the mall to get to our trail from Georgetown we needed to take to my friend's in NW DC. This is the Smithsonian Castle

a cool building. I needed to pee so badly but they need to paw through every single bag to let you in. Again I had everything on me I needed for a week. An uncomfortable wait as I have lots of compartments

The big rain happened 6/3. Our path

So Wednesday, instead of riding, we walked around museums all day. My thighs were swollen from the 160 miles of riding so going down stairs was fun.

We spent a lot of time in the Museum of Natural History and that of the American Indian. Wanted to go into the National Gallery but ran out of time

American Indian Museum was very depressing. Broken treaties, genocide....soldiers shooting toddlers who were too big to carry but walked too slow on the Trail of Tears

lots of public art

Museum of American History?

this tree was all metal

I liked these caladium leaves

Georgetown Waterfront Park Sculpture. We went through this several times coming and going on our bike trips

tomb of unknown soldier, Arlington National Cemetery

Acres and acres of tombs

Mt Vernon..at the end of the Mt Vernon trail

slave quarters for the house servants at Mount Vernon. Washington had slaves but he did buy the freedom for several of his favorites

Alexandria two days before we rode through it. We still needed to make detours around the waterfront in Old Town

the rains plus a tidal surge left this at the Georgetown Waterfront Park. We rode through there two days after this picture and it was fine

same thing here

We went to the zoo to see pandas who were MIA. But they had this. I think the Orangutans can brachiate for a quarter mile 50 feet above us. If they were willing to fall, they could escape. Lots of videos on line with them taking their trips. One was about to start as we were leaving but he was taking too long and we had places to be

starting tower

this one was making faces at a kid inches away through the glass. Lots of fun expressions

lunch spot Friday near the Potomac. Real cute Irish pub

Glen Echo Park full of art deco rides. Howard students had a mass protest here in the 60s as Blacks were excluded

the merry-go-round still works

Just because we had to abort the second half of our ride didn't mean we had to hide in a corner and cry. We could still have fun and even spend the whole time riding our bikes. Lots of options. Or we could take the train back to Pittsburgh where the car was. But my friend was on vacation..yeah, let's have fun. We could stay 4 nights with my friend instead of the one planned. Nothing more fun than inviting oneself. He was busy but we would be gone during the day.. I was responsible for planning the first half and my friend the second half. Lots of cancelling on his part. We could have not gotten to Harper's Ferry as the bridge was out (that was the town I most wanted to see). Rumor has it that the Western Railroad Trail (paved!!!!) will extend all the way to DC and they will stop maintaining the towpath so when that happens, I'll be there.  The train was to leave Cumberland at 9:30 (ha!Amtrak is never on time, just the week before the whole line was closed down due to the other rains) so we had plenty of time for a leisurely breakfast downtown. What could go wrong? Well at 9:10 our path was blocked by a stopped train. They switch cars nearby and block the main drag regularly. Lots of people cursing that train. So we did get stuck carrying the bikes under that sleazy urine filled underpass. The website now said the train was late. There are no train officials at the station nor any outside seating. I sat on edge of the tracks narrowly being missed when the train came whooshing in. There is only one luggage compartment that fits the 8 bikes And my bike ticket cost as much as my senior ticket though I guess it did take up more space than I did. There were several other bikers there in the same situation so we had lots to talk about. I made new friends. My friend went to sit in the back of the  caboose so he could see all the flood damage. My new friend said something about where was my husband. Back in Michigan. So you are sharing a room with someone not your husband. Yeah. So what? We both had our own floors in DC so there. I am not a cheater and biking doesn't make the situation any more tempting.

Where are our bikes? We thought it would be obvious once we were in Union Station. But no. And they don't number their cars logically like they do in Europe so we didn't the note the number  of the car. Zillions of school groups come to DC for their end of the year trip. The mall was so crowded.  with tourists, it was slow going. Taking the Capital Crescent trail took 12 miles total. It does go too far north but there is no easy short cuts. I assume if we just rode up (up being the operative word) Massachusetts Avenue, we could have gotten there in half the distance but risked our lives. Once we found the beginning of the Capital Crescent in Georgetown, it was easy going. Hardly any bikes either though I think it had been flooded that morning at high tide. Cold fancy beers and a nice dinner awaited us at the end of our ride. I got to meet their new Shibu Ino, much friendlier than their last dog. While we were there, DC was unseasonably cool until the last morning so that was great. And no rain. And my Michigan friend got along really well with my DC friends, which I had worried a bit about.

Wednesday was a rest day spent walking around museums. Thursday, we rode down to Georgetown, crossing the Potomac into Virginia to go on the Mt Vernon  trail along the Potomac. It would have been 55 miles round trip but as long as it isn't rush hour, you can put your bikes on the metro made easier by elevators. We stopped by the Arlington Cemetery, stood under the end of a runway at Reagan to have a plane take off right above our heads, lunch in Alexandria at a nice deli, up (also up a hill despite it being right next to the water) The swollen Potomac sometimes was just an inch away from us. We did have to ride inland in Alexandria to avoid the flooding. Love the colonial architecture. Also very expensive to live there.

It was so crowded at Mt Vernon with those school kids. We got there at 2 and the earliest we could enter the mansion was 5 pm. We did take a virtual tour. Not very fancy inside like the palaces built at the same time in Europe. We toured the gardens and farms with the same plants as he had. My rhubarb looks so much healthier.  Back to Alexandria. I went to the tourist info to ask about good happy hours. Oh you will be watching the game then? What game? It turned out to be the final game of the Stanley Cup, the Washington Capitals (We are all CAPS, I saw on signs later)versus some Las Vegas team. The only reason this mattered is when we had to transfer downtown to the red line from the blue, all these loud guys wearing red flooded the station hooting and hollering. I am not much of a hockey fan. DC has a huge black population but they don't seem to be into hockey either. We settled down to a sidewalk Irish bar and had very tasty food and beer. We would only need to ride about a mile or two to the subway station outside of town (and up yet another hill) We had to wait until rush hour was over so we took our time only to find a flat tire. Ugh. It was patchable but time consuming. With the transfers, it was dark when we returned to our friend's neighbor hood. Tennytown. Down the hill into the darkness. Fortunately I had packed my flashers.

We were mostly in the city the next day. It was suggested we go to a Japanese Art exhibit. Trust me, this would not go over well with my riding partner. We went to the zoo, then Georgetown , then we were going to ride the C&O canal but ended up on the Capital Crescent once again (Rock Creek Parkway, which we headed south on not so straight or flat). We got off of it to go to Glen Echo and the Irish bar next to it before heading up the hill from hell making me use the lower chair ring for the first time back into my friend's place. We took out our hosts to a really good seafood place nearby. That dinner cost more than the 3 nights of hotels I paid. DC is a very expensive place.

Woke up early to run in the now steamy weather before our long drive home, first in a rental car to carry our bikes, then in my friend's car back in Pittsburgh. We did stop for crab soup in Hagerstown Maryland.

Maybe someday the weather will co-operate.