Playing catch up with a long, picture heavy post ...

I'm still here but just waaaayyyy behind on updating my blog. So this is going to be a long catch up post.

Where did the summer go? This summer went by so fast & it's rather sad that we really did not do much of anything but stay around the house. I felt bad so I HAD to take my little guy out somewhere. I offered to take him to Kings Dominion's waterpark but he wanted to go to Splashdown instead. For some reason, he just loves this place. It's a decent sized park with a few waterslides, pool & lazy river. It's about a 20 minute drive to the other end our county. We spent Labor Day day enjoying the sunshine, pool & slides. I took him out to Dairy Queen afterwards so he could enjoy his favorite Blizzard.

The next morning was the start of a new school year.

 This is his first year in public school so he was a bit nervous and so was I. He's never been in another school so it will take some adjustments for him to get used to. Not only the size of the classroom but the way they do things. He's spent all of his school life in a small private school & this was quite a bit different. He is used to being in a class of less than 10 students & this school has 20+. So far he seems to have adjusted and is liking his school. Of course it's only been a litle over a week so we shall see.

In other news, my running has been non-existent & biking has been on and off. I am going to defer my Richmond Half Marathon registration to 2015. My heart just doesn't seem to want to be "into" running and in order for me to successfully train I need to have the motivation. I know it will eventually come back.

I did go out on a 10 mile bike ride on Sunday with my friend J. It was a beautiful cool morning. We parked near the airport & rode into DC.

A friend was participating in The Nations Triathlon and we wanted to watch him cross the finish line. He finished up earlier than expected because the race directors decided to cancel the swim portion. The prior nights storm caused some sewage leakage into the Potomac -GROSS!

this guys shirt was cool

our friend ~ way to go!

We chatted after he crossed the finish & decided to go and explore our way to Georgetown. We went over the Memorial Bridge and got back onto the Mount Vernon Trail north. 

I rode on the Mt. Vernon trail many, many years ago and I do not remember it being so busy. It's a nice trail but boy it was crowded with runners, walkers & slower riders in some stretches. This made it feel like rush hour traffic making it not a very pleasant ride. I think the next time I ride this trail I will have to come super early in the morning or avoid it on the weekends.

After going under this bridge, I was assuming this was Key Bridge. We got off the trail and after getting halfway across we realized this was the wrong bridge. We were on the Route 50 & I 66 bridge -oops. The sidewalk on the bridge was quite a bit narrow. We had to turn around and get back on the trail. 

Route 50/I 66 bridge

We got back on the trail and eventually got to Key Bridge & headed over it into Georgetown.

Key Bridge going toward Georgetown

view of Rosslyn, VA from Key Bridge

Once we got to Georgetown we rode down to Dean & DeLuca's and I got an iced Latte. After our quick coffee break we headed back to Key Bridge into Rosslyn. 

Georgetown University in the distance 

pretty colorful kayaks taken from atop the bridge

M Street behind us 

Not sure if this sign is supposed to be helpful to cyclst or cars.

The ride back seemed to be a lot more congested. We did alot of slowing down, weaving among runners and passing walkers on the trail. If it was humid & hot I would have been highly annoyed but I was just happy to be out on my bike on such a beautiful day. 

 We made it to Gravelly Point Park and loaded our bikes into the van. We were able to snap pictures of the planes taking off and landing at Reagan National.

And we finished our day at the Bayou Bakery with a Andouille Sausage & some yummy Beginets