Day 5 - August 5th: Relax in Luray & Peach Orchard for Some

Tuesday, August 5, 2008:
Relax in Luray & Peach Orchard for Some

Today was a low-key day. The grandparents took the ‘big kids’ (Connor & Andrew) to a peach orchard to pick peaches, for a drive on Skyline Drive, overlooking the Shenandoah Valley & hiking in Shenandoah Forest to see a waterfall. I included pictures that Grandma Barb took. This excursion allowed the parents to stay home with Avery, Antonio, Marcos, and Abraham and relax a little bit. I spent the day working on my Mt. Vernon iMovie for my classes so I don’t have to spend much time on it when I get back to school. It was awesome…but a little disheartening that I would spend about 2-3 hours and have only approx. 7 minutes of a ‘documentary’ on Mt. Vernon. I know in the end it will be worth it. Later in the evening the ‘Mailander/Capella’ crew came over to our cabin for dinner.

Tomorrow Jill, Alex, and I are going to ride into Washington, D.C. to sightsee around the District without having to drive up & park. Chris has some meetings so he is going to take us up, drop us off, pick us up in the evening, and then bring us home…great deal! It should be a lot of fun and very entertaining…no agenda – but hoping to see the Smithsonian – American History & Natural History possibly, the Capitol, the Library of Congress, and the major attractions on the Mall. Thursday we will head to Monticello to see Jefferson’s ‘old haunts’.

Thoughts / Observations

• Good day to relax and get a break from the hectic pace. Again, I enjoy the company of the Mailanders and Capella’s. They are all very bright, very engaging, and a lot of fun. Wishing more and more that they didn’t live so far away.

• Connor & Andrew reportedly stated, "Today was the best day of their lives". Apparently the rule in place to go on this excursion was to be 5 & under OR 50 & over!

• The kids are doing well, but I am starting to see that it won’t be all bad to get them home and into a routine before the start of school.

• Not much history analysis to report…I wish I had a little bit better footage from Mt. Vernon, but will enjoy having internet access so I can fill some info not available to me otherwise.