Skyline Drive

On Monday Maggie drove me to Shenandoah National Park and down the road that is called Skyline Drive. I think I have been through Shenandoah park back with I was about 16 years old and went on vacation with my parents to visit Washington DC. Even thought I have lived in the Northern Virginian area 2 other times I never made it back to the park. It was a really nice drive stopping often to enjoy the views. The day was not as nice as the day before being rather overcast and I think skyline drive may be a little bit higher because there did not seem to be any trees in bloom.

At one of the stopped we made there was a sign that said something about a viewpoint in 600 yards down a trail and we decided to give it a look. It was a nice view and the short walk got my heart pounding a little bit so a few miles future down the road we decided to walk down to a waterfall. It was a bit of a longer walk than the one to get to the viewpoint and the waterfall was not really spectacular but was still nice to see.

The walk back to the car was a real workout and for some reason Maggie refused to carry me. On the walk up the hill Maggie spotted some wild turkeys. I don’t think I have ever seen turkeys in the wild before so I thought this was a really special treat. Even thought it may have not been the best time to visit the park at least I have seen it again and it made for a really enjoyable day out.

Monticello

The flight to DC was painless. After all the bus rides during this trip a plane is such a pleasurable experience.

I have lived in the DC Area a couple of times but there are still a number of tourist sites I never have visited. There are so many things in this area to see and do and when I was living here I figured I would get to them at some point but had better things to do at the moment. This is good because it gives me a good excuse to visit my friends and also be a tourist. The down side is I don’t really want to rent a car and a lot of the things that I am interested in seeing are not accessible by public transport.

Maggie was nice enough to take some time off while I am visiting and play tourist with me. We took a day and drove out to Monticello, which was Thomas Jefferson’s home. It is a really pretty building and I can now say I have seen the house on the back on the nickel.

I think I enjoyed the scenery on the drive to get to Monticello and the grounds more than the house itself. The day was bright and sunny and a lot of trees were blooming. The grounds had a large number of tulips in bloom as well as other flowers that I have no idea of the name of. We joined the tour of the garden, which I found interesting even if I am not into gardening. One fact I found strange is they 35 gardeners but only 3 beagles to keep the deer away from the flowers and the garden.

What Wonderful Parents

My time with my parents in Denver came to an end. It was really great to be able to spend so much time with them. I was surprised that they did not kick me out prior to my scheduled departure date but somehow they managed to put up with me for over 2 months.

We did some things close to Denver while I was there but I also applied for and received a new passport during my stay. It is nice to have a passport with so many blank pages that I need to start working on filling. I also did some studying and passed a couple of certification that I hope will make it easier to get a job after returning to Holland.

Thanks again Mom and Dad for everything.

Rocky Mountain Arsenal

After visiting a family friend that was in the hospital my parents and I decided to check out the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. The little bit that I knew about the Rocky Mountain Arsenal was not good. I knew it was a restricted place when I was growing up and my understanding then was that it stored a large amount of deadly chemicals. Reading on the web site this was actually the place where the chemical weapons were made. During the process of investigating the extent of the pollution and ways to clean it up a large animal population was discovered in the buffer zone around the arsenal. This is now a National Wildlife refuge.

The refuge is suppose to be home to a number of bald eagles but we did not see any on our visit there. We did not spend a great deal of time at the refuge but walked around the lake and watched the geese and the red winged black birds fly around.




It was a nice day out even if it was not that impressive. I was really happy later to stand and look into the mirror and confirm that I was not glowing. Just something you have to check after visiting a place that at one time was one of the most dangerous places in the world.