Notorious B and G: Exploring New Lands

Hey all! Greetings from West Virginia! It took a little while between when we wrote this blog to when we were able to post it, as Appalachia isn't exactly a technological hub, so this entry covers from Friday, August 12th to Friday, August 19th.

After having some delicious french toast prepared by Uncle Richard we set off towards New York with a couple of stops on the way. First, at the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield. It has a lot of cool, old memorabilia and history about basketball. The best part was on the bottom level they have a hall of fame court where you can shoot around on all of the basketball hoop iterations that have existed over the years, starting all the way back with the old school peach basket. It was a lot of fun even though I tweaked my ankle ~~trying to dunk~~ dunking on a nine foot hoop. Our next stop was in Farmington, Connecticut to see cousin Elle and little cousins Eliza and Scarlet. Eliza and Scarlet even took us on a walk and gave us a tour of their school. From there we drove on to Clarence Fahnstock State Park in New York.

Proof that Gina could have made the NBA

Picked the right shirt to wear that day

I think Gina doesn't like Patrick Ewing

Textbook jumper

Having been camping mostly in fairly remote national parks we weren’t quite prepared for the experience of camping just an hour away from the largest city in the US during the weekend. It definitely attracts a bit of a different (and louder) crowd than we are used to. It was kind of like combining camping and clubbing with the loud music and bright lights. The most entertaining part was the people who camped next to us who I think had probably never been outside, let alone camping. They had a 20 minute shouting argument over whose fault it was that one of the dogs they brought shit on someone’s pillow and who should clean it up. They showed their knowledge and preparedness for life in the outdoors by spraying themselves with Raid to keep the bugs away (that can’t be good, right?). Then they spent most of Saturday sitting in their cars before deciding to leave early and likely never setting foot in nature again.

Camping was still really fun as we met up with Parker and Sarah (and Joey!) and Jake and Alicia. We did some nice hikes along the Appalachian Trail and had a great time hanging out and catching up with friends who brought an awesome selection of East Coast beers. After everyone left we spent Sunday afternoon reading and relaxing in the sun and then went into town to watch the Niners on Sunday Night Football. We left at halftime with the Niners winning 17-7 and woke up the next morning to find out they had lost 28-20 (what happened!?).

Hiking in NY - hard to get Joey to pose for pictures

On Monday we drove from New York to DC. We stayed with cousin Ned and Tori and little cousins Quinn, Skyler and Owen in Bethesda. We had a great time playing soccer and break dance battling with Owen, helping Skyler with her homework (all Gina) and meeting Quinn’s lizard. We also enjoyed some delicious BBQ burgers and a great meal prepared by Ned and Tori. On Tuesday we took the Metro into DC and spent the day walking around and visiting all the attractions in DC. We saw the White House, the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, Capitol Building and the World War II and Vietnam War Memorials. We met up with Gasper and Jenny at their apartment, had drinks on the roof of their apartment building and they took us to dinner at an excellent Ramen place.

Where Barry O lives

Washington Monument

Reflection Pond

Sakuramen with Gasper and Jenny

On Wednesday we hung out drinking coffee and chatting with Gasper before walking down to see the American History and Natural History Museums. We both really loved the American History Museum. It has excellent exhibits on America’s political history and also had really cool exhibits on things like the history of American food, wine, money, transportation and inventions. We had lunch at Jimmy John’s (a new fav) and went back to Gasper’s for a little bit before taking the Metro back to Bethesda. Ned and Tori took us to an amazing Lebanese restaurant in downtown Bethesda and we probably ate enough food to keep us going for the next week. We had both probably lost about five pounds in the first three weeks of our trip, but the last couple weeks of eating with family and friends have given us that extra layer of insulation that we need as fall approaches.

Playing some street hockey before the school bus came

We left DC on Thursday morning (but not before playing street hockey with Quinn and Ned) and headed to Shenandoah where we’ve mostly been hiking around the park. We did a couple of waterfall hikes on Thursday and did the Old Rag hike Friday. It’s a really cool hike that involves a lot of rock scrambling to reach the top of the mountain. At the top there are great views of the Shenandoah Valley. On the way back down Gina got stung by a bee. She was hopping up and down and shouting obscenities when a small black bear (probably a two year old) ran right across the trail in front of us. I know they say that bears are more afraid of us than we are of them and that was definitely true in this case as the poor bear was probably terrified and very confused about why so many curse words were coming its direction. Near the end of the trail, which was on a fire road, we saw another (and much larger) black bear eating berries on the side of the trail. We watched it for a few minutes and took some pictures, which was great until we realized that it had absolutely no intentions of leaving the trailside. We tried all of the normal bear scaring tactics (clapping and yelling in a deep voice), but this bear did not care one bit. We even rolled some rocks down the trail toward it and it just looked at us and laughed. We were only a quarter mile from the end of a nine mile loop and walking back the other 8.75 miles wasn’t a particularly attractive option. Luckily a ranger came by in a truck and put her siren on and the bear begrudgingly retreated into the forest.