The Maryland Renaissance Festival

I am so proud of myself, I have managed to blog about both Saturday and Sunday and it’s only Monday evening!!! This is much better than last weekend. :)

Today, Jay, Lauren, Tim and I went to the Maryland Renaissance Festival.

The main thing I love about this festival is how much your inner geek comes out. This festival uses a lot of play on words and innuendos. Jay’s favorite is that the preferred currency is Lady Visa and Master Card.

And one of our favorites from this trip was:

And of course the majority of the entertainment comes from the performers themselves. This trip we watched a sword swallower, tight rope walker, some naughty singers and some jousting.

And, yes that is an 18 month old behind the naughty singers. Hopefully, she didn’t absorb any of their music ;).

But the main reason we went to the Renaissance Festival, was to hang out with friends,

 

and that we did!

Have you ever been to a Renaissance Festival? What did you think?

Apple Picking at Butler’s Orchard

It’s finally fall in the DC area. Earlier this week, I wasn’t so enthusiastic about the sudden change in weather. I felt gipped out of the last pool weekend of the year. My apartment leaves the pool open 2 weekends past labor day. Last weekend was a beautiful pool weekend, but not this weekend.

But after our long run yesterday (more tomorrow), I am fully embracing the drop in temperature. It is so much easier to run in 60 degree weather than in 95 degree weather. Let’s just leave it at that.

Saturday, to embrace the season, the girls and I headed out to Butler’s Orchard in Germantown to pick apples.

I haven’t been apple picking in almost ten years! It was so much fun wandering around the orchard and picking the fruit I wanted.

We were slightly disappointed that there was really only one type of apple to pick, but are thankful that the Jonathon apple is an “excellent eating apple” according to the orchard :)

After picking a few apples, we headed down to the Orchard’s store to buy some local produce. We each grabbed a nice assortment of fruits and vegetables. I am excited to show y’all the zebra tomatoes I bought! Not sure what I am going to do with it yet, but I would love suggestions!

Overall we had a great time and I love catching up with the girls. I can’t wait until October when we go pumpkin picking!

What Fall fun are you planning this season?

The Billy Goat Trail

Today, Mary, Jay, Will and I decided to start our holiday weekend with a short but strenuous hike. We drove the 20 miles out from Arlington to Great Falls and hiked the Billy Goat Trail. Great Falls Park is in Virginia, but we hiked on the Maryland side of the river.  Because of this, I haven’t technically been to Great Falls Park, but you better believe it has been added to the “Must-do-in-DC-List”.

The Billy Goat Trail is located in Maryland between the Potomac river and the C&O Canal. There are three parts, but we only hiked the first (and most strenuous) part.  This trail extends from the Great Falls Tavern through 3-4 miles of trails which include rock scrambles, wood trails, beaches and (practically) paved roads. 

It was pretty cool to see the donkey-drawn canal boats on the river and 18th century locks still working on the Canal as we walked to the trail head.  It was great to see the efforts they took to preserve the original feel of the area!

This hike reminded me of Old Rag, just a very tame version.  You can wear hiking boots (like me) but this trail can be done in tennis shoes or even flip-flops… Yes, a girl was actually hiking in flip-flops… (though I would not recommend it!!) If you are considering driving out to Shenandoah, try this hike first and then imagine it on steroids, that is Old Rag.

The pictures above just do not give this steep slope justice. I was so glad we went up it, instead of down.

Will was a fun addition to our little hiking group. As we finished this nice little slope, he says “Yeah, I’d like to order an egg, bacon, and rock scramble”. I think the women behind us were going to die of laughter.

The last part of the trail is just a leisurely walk along the C&O canal. We were amazed how tired we were!!! We still managed to enjoy the scenery and see Bambi along the way.

Jay got some great shots of this guy. We were amazed how tame he and his buddy were! They were about 20 feet away from the main trail and didn’t pay any more attention to us than a glance. Guess they’re used to tourists…

I would definitely recommend hiking the Billy Goat trail to all my DC friends!!

How are you making your weekend active?

Old Rag Mountain

As I mentioned Saturday morning, a group of us went out to Shenandoah National Park to hike Old Rag Mountain.

We picked the perfect time to go! The leaves and the scenery were beautiful, making the drive fly by.
This hike is the considered one of the most popular hikes in Virginia, but also one of the most dangerous. The hike is an 8 mile loop, with the more strenuous part toward the beginning. The first 2.5 miles are all uphill until you reach the 1 mile of "rock scramble." Then the last 4.5 miles is all downhill. I would only consider the first 2 miles downhill to be a hike and the remainder is a nice 2.5 mile stroll down a Fire Road. By the time we got to the Fire Road, all 7 of us were walking in a nice compact group playing 20 questions.

Below you can view all of my pictures of the hike. I highly recommend this hike to anyone in the greater Virginia area with caution. If you do not think you can do the rock scramble, you could walk up the Fire Road to about 2 miles of uphill hiking to the summit of the mountain.

Since, I knew what was coming, once we got on the trail I started working on my Builder's Bar by Cliff Bar. This is one of my favorite energy bars because it is packed with protein, but looks and tastes more like a candy bar! YUM!

The first 2.5 miles was the incline I mentioned above, so once we got to our first overlook we stopped for a little lunch.

I think my sandwich enjoyed the view as much as I did.

There are no pets allowed on Old Rag Mountain, except this guy. This is a local dog that lives across from the Trail Parking Lot (or so his tag told us). His tag read something along the lines of "I know where I am, please do not take me. I live across the street from the Old Rag Mountain Parking Area." We were pretty amused.

After we saw him, we began the real rock scramble. My mom warned me, but I was still amazed by how many children (aka Cub Scouts) there were on this hike. The parking lot that holds 250 cars was full when we pulled up at 10 a.m. We ended up parking in a locals field that they opened up to the Public. We were pretty thankful!

When we started off, we knew we would be enjoying this hike with others. What we were not expecting was the up to 35 minute waits at the top. Thankfully our first wait was with this guy and only lasted 15 minutes.

This was the line for, in my opinion, the most challenging rock scramble between the second and third overlook. Total wait time: 35 minutes.

We thought it was worth it! And were very glad to have a rope.

Some of us had an easier time than others :/ But, we all enjoyed it!

The third major overlook!

Some of us are also braver (eer... or stupider) than others. This is a good example of why this hike is considered so dangerous.

And, finally at the top!

See the three major overlooks? Isn't it beautiful!

On our way back down the mountain!

We munched on our GORP the entire hike. I finally finished mine on the way down the mountain, along with my Granny Smith Apple Slices.

Overall, it was a great day. We had a great group that was prepared and upbeat about the entire experience until the car... when they crashed :).

Our total time on the mountain was just over 6 hours and that is with all the waiting we did at the top. Our group calculated that we probably spent a total of an hour waiting at various points along the rock scramble. Shenandoah National Park recommends that hikers give themselves 7 to 8 hours.

If you are from Virginia, have you hiked Old Rag? If you are not from Virginia or have not hiked Old Rag, what local hike would you call your State's most popular hike?