Hiking the Potomac River / 10-17-14

I decided to go and see Great Falls which is located on the upper Potomac River.  They are about 15 miles up stream for downtown Washington, D C.  There are several visitor centers along the Virginia side near where my family lives.  I decided to start at the main center & overlooks of the falls.

As you can see it is a national park & so I was able to use my "senior" lifetime pass.  There are two main viewing overlooks right at the falls & these are a few.

These three pictures (above) make up a panorama of this (main) part of the falls.  In the last one, if you look closely, you can see the overlook & people on the  Maryland side of the river.  This flows all the way down & joins the Chesapeake Bay, which divides part of Maryland & all of Delaware from the western part of Maryland.  Sorry for the geography lesson but I am sure several of you have never been in this area.  This is where I grew up and spent the first 24 years of life........
Below is another look back at the falls from farther down stream.

The next is a look at the river a little below the falls as it travels what is called Mather Gorge (pictured below).

Below is my shot of the gorge taken looking back up stream toward the falls which are not quite visible.  It is a weird angle since I was trying to get the picture without falling off the rocks into the river.

Next is a plaque to a very famous early champion of national parks all over the U S.  I have seen this same plaques in the Sierra Nevada Mts. (Calif.) and there is even a "pass" on the John Muir Trail named for him.

I hiked up stream from the falls to another visitor center which was about 2 miles (each way)on the trail which followed by the side of the river. It had great shade cover and was lightly used this day (Friday).

Above is one of the trail signs which is similar to the signs on the Pacific Crest Trail (which runs from Mexico to Canada going through Calif./Oregon/Washington & is 2,650 miles long).

I even found some remaining wall the made up part of the canal that ran from Carter Rock, Md. down to Washington, D C. These wall date back several hundred years but are now longer a functioning part of the canal.  The canal moved all sorts of products around the area for years.

I am now up to date with my travels (so far) but I am sure something else will happen soon, so hang in there.  Adios!

Hiking in Virginia

I have been spending time hanging out with my sister here in Virginia.  Since her husband is still working, we have had the days to relax & play with the dogs.

My sister, her husband & myself all attended the same high school (Woodrow Wilson H S) in Washington, D. C.   Last Friday (10/11) was my sister`s 45 th class reunion & the morning of their party, her class had scheduled a tour of our old school.  It was interesting to see the place after so many years (I graduated in 1966 & my brother-in-law in 1970).  The three of joined a two hour tour from the principal and the changes are amazing.  It is a public school and got $ to make major improvements plus enlarging the buildings.  It had been 48 years since I had been inside.  I hope we have a 50 th reunion for our class!

I know, not enough pictures - so last Wednesday I talked my sister into a hike around some of the man made lake in Reston, Va.  Reston is the nations first Planned Community Zone & was established in the early 1960`s.  It is northwest of Washington & was really out in the country when it was built.  See the plaque, Lake Anne was the first of may clusters that made up this development. 

Next are a few pictures of the building that make up this (still) thriving community.  The design of it really says 1960`s as you can see below but it has a certain charm.  You really need to read at least the first paragraph of the picture above to understand the concept.

 This central area has shops below and living units above.  There is even a church, gas station, hiking trails & boating on the lakes.

This picture above is me turning right a quarter of a turn from the last, to see the boating and common area (notice the bronze statue seated on the bench - it is Mr. Simon, the planner)

One of the "fingers" of the lake showing layout of the water to the homes.  It is a little to dense for my liking but it is nice.

We hiked around Lake Thoreau, one of  larger lakes which took about an hour & then had lunch at a place right there.  Great day & nice weather (not raining for a change).

A little fall color in some plants.

There was also some salad "fixings" by the trail side but I resisted.......

I hope you enjoyed the history lesson with pictures & there will not be a test afterwards.  More another time but since it is now 10:27 P M, I am done......

Visiting Family / actual date 10-6-14

My first stop in a real house - New Jersey!  I got to spend some time with family and sleep in a real bed.  I was fun seeing my great nephew & great niece along with their parents.

A stop in the action for a picture Stephanie, Donovan (age 5), Elyse (age 2) & me.  

They are bundles of energy but so adorable.  I stayed with them for  4-5 days & ended up picking up some "bug".  I was still able to get out and walk around their neighborhood checking out the houses.  I forget about the trees & plants that thrive back here.  Here are some of the homes near by.

This last one is converted old train depot the is now a private residence.  They kept the old depot sign up which really completes the look.
Talk about old, these next few pictures are at a cemetery a short walk away.  I was interested in some of the head stones, as you can see it has been around for a while!

Sorry if those are a little to morbid for you but I found them interesting.

On a lighter note, dinner time is always fun when kids are around!

And so after a great visit in New Jersey, I headed south on the New Jersey Turnpike which is a "fun" drive.  After about 5 hours of that and the Capitol Beltway (around Washington, DC), I landed in Great Falls, Va. (near Dullas International Airport, a little northwest of Washington).  I stayed with my sister, her husband & their three dogs (one border collie mix & two corgis).

Very relaxing and another comfortable (real) bed.  Hanging out and staying up late then getting up late was just right.  Above the two corgis took refuge in my room while the vac. was being used.  they are really good at relaxing.

 These are better pictures of the herd.

More adventures in Virginia next time, so ta,ta for now.

The last of Nova Scotia / actual date 10-3-14

As I was driving south before crossing the causeway (first picture below) that separates the main part of Nova Scotia from Cape Breton Island, I stopped at the tourist office.  They were very helpful with maps and suggestions of things to see.

They told me about the Alexander Graham Bell Museum in the city of Baddeck.  It is the place where Bell did a lot of his experiments, summered & is buried along with his wife.  He like the area since it reminded him of his native Scotland.  The museum is very extensive & has a lot of his actual prototypes that were donated by his family.  The family still keep a house nearby.  Unfortunately I was not allowed to take pictures inside, but did spend several hours there.

I then headed for Yarmouth on the southwestern tip on Nova Scotia.  That is where the ferry over to Portland, Maine leaves from & it turned out to be a 8+ hours sail.  It left at 10 A M but by the time I cleared Customs in Maine, it was after 9 P M.  It would have been interesting to look out (even though we were so far from land that you could not see it) but it was very foggy to the point of only being able to see about 100` to the side.

I landed (in the rain) & got a room in Freeport.  The reason for heading slightly north from Portland was to visit the LLBean main store.  It is a outdoor equipment icon that is over 100 years old which means it predates REI and all the others.  It is so big that it`s 8-10 buildings take up an entire city block.  Lots of stuff.....  I bought a pair of rain shoes, just in case it ever rains in Santa Barbara again!!

My next objective was a visit to my niece & family (yes, one of my two nieces who`s inheritance I am trying to spend as fast as I can) (see yellow decal below on the back of my camper).

She, her husband & two kids live in New Jersey.  It is an nice older part with great older houses.

This is for my friends Bob & Suzie in Miraposa - you might notice that I put a Canadian decal on the back of my camper for the trip across the country.  I thought it might endear me to people I met up there but it was not necessary.  They all treated my so nicely, as though I was their next door neighbor.

I will continue with that on the next blog - stay tuned.

On to Nova Scotia / actual date 10-2-14

Time to check out another land mass.  I caught the ferry from Woods Island, P. I. to Caribou, Nova Scotia which took about an hour & $74.00.  It sails from the southern tip of the island near the east end.
I headed up to the northeastern end which is actually an island (but still part of N. S.), it goes by the name Cape Breton Island.  My destination was Cape Breton Highlands National Park which takes up a great deal of the northern most tip of the province.  The tour books compare the drive around the coast to Big Sur drive south of San Francisco, Ca.  I agree with that but the Big Sur drive does not have moose.... no I still did not see any!
Here are a few pictures from my drive up the west side, across the top & down the east side.
The drive is know as the Cabot Trail.  This side going north borders the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

As you can see the land is a little "lumpy" & covered with forests.

I saw this old barn & could not resist a picture of it.  This was before I entered the Park.

It was suggested to me that there was a Cletic Music Center & lunch place that I might make the afternoon session.  I thought why not.  I was a great stop & good music (preformed by a piano & a fiddle).  I stayed about an hour, much fun.

I camped that night near the northern part of the park by a beautiful stream.

 

When I woke the temp. was 40 degrees (when it is 40 outside, it is only 41 inside) but I have several down layers, so sleeping was good.  I was now set to head down the east side of the park (the Alantic Ocean side).  The coast looks even more like Big Sur Coast in Calif.

Below is one of the markers for the Cabot Trail.

The ocean & clowds were really showing off this day as you see in this next picture.  It was overcast but that is better for taking photos.

That enough for now.  If you ever get the chance to see this park, don`t miss it.  It is a long way but........