Blue Ridge Parkway

On Friday I hired a car for the weekend. After a somewhat epic grocery shopping trip (they had my favorite wine on sale 1/2 price - what's a girl to do?), I headed to Staunton along the Blue Ridge Parkway. It takes a lot longer this route as the speed limit is ~45mph but the view is worth it.

Unfortunately the weather wash;t great for the first half of the trip. But the views were still pretty. 

Cloud hidden mountain

View

It seems like summer is definitely over now. Some of the trees have already turned.

Fall colors.

Still there were some flowers out to remind me of summer.

Daisies. 

I stopped at a few of the overlooks. Some were more like lay-bys - the view was just the woods. Others had little walks to get to the view. I decided to go on the one which was a 6min round trip. My kind of hike!

Waltz through the woods.

For my little walk.

The sun eventually came out and made the views a lot prettier.

Sunny!

My favorite was at thunder ridge. For the most part, thanks to being a Friday I had the parkway to myself. Thunder Ridge was a few mins from the road and the view was amazing. And it was so quiet! It has been a long time since I have heard that kind of silent. Just an occasional bird and acorn falling off a tree. It was rely peaceful just watching the view.

On top of the world

Across Virginia.

There was this great viewing platform that jutted out of the hill to give a better view. Maybe it's because I have been reading the Narnia books, but it felt like there should a throne or something up there.

A view to rule a kingdom!

I could have sat up there all day but I left after about half a hour. Partly because some other people showed up (and I was feeling anti-social - it was a view best appreciated in silence I thought; they did not), and partly because I had forgotten to pack bug spray. And the bugs were loving me. Thankfully no bites but I think I eat a few flies. Yuck. Also I did have to get moving.

My next stop was crossing the James River. It was beautiful! I am hoping to go kayaking down it in a few weeks when the rest of the leaves have turned. Fingers crossed.

James River

James River

The Blue Ridge Parkway ends just as the Shenandoah begins but I took the road west to Staunton to crash for the night. I had packed some goodies in a cool bag for the evening (to save money) so chilled out in my hotel room with one of my favorite wines (seriously R collection wine is amazing!), cheeses, cured meats and crackers. Oh and anchovies. (I like them!) With all that and catching up on Sons of Anarchy, it was a very good night. :-)

Dinner!

Eva's 5th Birthday

Saturday was Eva's 5th Birthday and she invited me to her "Frozen" birthday party at Romp 'N' Roll.  It was joint birthday party for Eva and her friend Luie who was turning 3.

Eva's favorite person, Elsa

There were about 20 kids, from age 1 to 8. Romp 'N' Roll is a gymnastic area where basically the kids can go wild. And they did!

Swinging

climbing                                              

hugging her best friend                                                 

jumping                                

Sliding with Ann-Marie

At one point, three of the girls were being princesses in their castle, when the big bad wolf (aka. Steve) invaded. The ensuing mayhem really was his own fault!

Attaching the princesses

"Are you going to help me?"

"Nope"

There were a few tears throughout the event (I was honestly expecting a lot more!) but mostly they just had fun. Some of the kids had no fear and were leaping between things like monkeys! Scaring parents each time!

They had great fun with the little parachute and wool balls which they basically shook and threw.

                                         

                                         

Then it was back to chaos for a time...

Hiding

Monkeys

There is no way this could go wrong                                              

... before time for food and cake.

The birthday kids shared a Frozen cake and everyone seemed to really enjoy their treats.

Birthday boy

Birthday girl, blowing out the candles

Cake!

Then it was back into the play room. Personally I was amazed this didn't end with a LOT of puke. But I guess the kids had stronger stomachs than I thought as thankfully that didn't happen. Of course, with sugar in their systems, the mayhem was magnified.

Cuddles with mom and dad.

Then the helpers organized a snowball fight, girls vs. boys, with soft toys. (Again no way THAT could go wrong!)

Snowball fight, pre-injury

Eva got hit in the eye :-( and started screaming. I don't think there was a winner to the fight.
Then there was a bear hunt, which most of the kids go into.

Inventive way down the bridge

Looking for the bear - Eva looking a bit bemused.                                    

Totally unimpressed kid!

I was exhausted by this point! Luckily all that was left was dancing with the bubble machine and getting goody bags.

It was a very tiring 2 hours! By the end I think most of the kids were over-stimulated and either hyped up or over-due for a nap. But I think for the most part Eva enjoyed herself and she liked her presents.
I spent the rest of the night and weekend working, except for a Skype home to catch up with my parents who have been on holiday so there was a lot to catch up on. My life is pretty much work at the moment. But I have a weekend away planned soon so hopefully I'll get a break then. :-) 

Radford festival

Saturday, Steve and I wanted to take Eva to the planetarium at Radford University (well we wanted to go to the river again but the weather forecast was not good so this was the alternative). The campus in Radford is beautiful and we got some great pictures walking through.

Baby nearly going for a swim

Father and daughter

Pulling faces - because we can!

 However when we got to the planetarium, it was shut! :-( We waited with 2 other families but no one came to open up. So we had to give up. We found craft fair in Radford which was actually really good. I was really tempted by some of the rings (my ideal ring) but decided to save the money to pay off the credit card and save for the next traveling adventure (hopefully mini later in the month and major in February). I ended up getting some local honey and Eva got a piece of carrot cake as a treat.

After the craft fair, we headed to Dublin for a Fall festival. It is scary to think they are considering fall already. It should still be summer! But the fair was fun. Eva got cotton candy and candy corn. One happy (and hyper) kid.

Happy/hyper kiddo

 They had some animals there too. I admit to going gaga over the baby ducks and rabbits.

Ducklings

Rabbits.

Eva even took a ride on the pony. When I first meet her, 3 month ago, she was too afraid to go near one, let alone ride on a pony. She is growing up so quickly.

Riding the pony

Happy father!

 Then it started raining so we headed inside. And Eva, with some couching, won a bracelet from the corn throw (you thrown a bean bag through some holes - a great American tradition, particularly at football game tailgates) and a necklace at the pumpkin toss (throwing a hoop around the stem of a pumpkin). She looked very stylish at the end.

Fashion icon and her snow cone

After a snow cone (a kids dream junk food day), we headed back to mine to pick up some work and then to Steve's house in Christiansburg. Steve and I took turns with naps and work while Eva napped (not long enough) and played with her. After games and reading, she finally slept! Steve and I split a bottle of "R Collection" Cabernet Sauvignon from California. (If you ever see this wine, buy it, and buy me a bottle. I will love you forever - It is the best wine on the planet!) I am currently waiting outside Steve's for the taxi to go home. Thankfully his internet extends to the front lawn!

Lightning and cats

Tuesday evening was rather (unexpectedly) eventful. While I was working at home in the afternoon, I heard laughter and pitiful meowing from outside. The cat form next door, Henry, who I have been feeding and now follows me around, managed to get himself stuck on a railing about 10 ft above the stairs. I have no idea how he managed it. But he was not coming down. The girl from upstairs was trying to get him down but he was not budging.

It took about half an hour and some dodgy balancing on a chair on stairs, but she managed to lean through the balcony above and pass him down to me on the chair. Of course he needed encouragement and clung on for a while. But eventually we got him down and his paws were thankfully ok despite his clinging to it with a cat death grip when we tried to get him off. He wasn't too traumatized though. As soon as I got him some treats (I have a stash), he tucked in! Though he now seems to be sitting outside my door! He must believe in the whole "you save my life now owe me" thing. Or decided this is his home now.

After that and a cooking an amazing red thai curry, I got a new sofa. Well, second hand, brought off Cissi. But now I don't slide off it. Though it did take some doing (and tools) to get the other one into the spare room. But I now have the sofa bed in the spare room. So all those people who mentioned they wanted to come and visit, you have a year before I move and would have your own lovely room. (Hint hint!)

There was also a really cool lighting storm on Tuesday night. I sat outside and tried to get a photo of a lightning strike. Of course I was always pointing my camera in the wrong direction. Maybe next time. But I did get some shots of the lightning in the clouds.

Lightning

behind the clouds

Without the lightning

I went in when it started raining so probably missed a lot of chances. But there is only so fair I will go for my art!

Tonight after teaching, I spent some time baking. I have recently started baking GF goodies. (Which is good and bad. I have goodies, which I have missed. But until my ankle heals - it still really hurts and I might need to find a doctor - I can't exercise. Not a good combination!) Though I have been making friends by handing out goodies.
Last week was muffins, from a recipe I was quite impressed with.  (Usually the GF muffins are nasty.) Tonight was brownies. They are really good. At this rate, if I can't run, I may have to hop. Or I am going to end up the size of a whale. But they are just too good to resist! :-) 

RiverFest, Radford

I survived my first week of teaching! My class keeps on growing and some of the students are challenging at the least. Still most of them are great and I am hoping once I get used to it and start doing the demonstrations, it will become less stressful and more fun. (Assuming the demos work, which is probably a big assumption!)
Saturday I went with Steve and Eva to Radford, about 20 mins outside to the RiverFest at Bisset Park. The park was very nice but the Festival wasn't quite what we were expecting. They had slightly exaggerated what was going on. There was no as much going on as we thought there would be. :-(

The festival

Still it was free and a lovely day. And there was some music so Steve and Eva got some more dancing in.

Getting their groove on.

Dancing

Getting dizzy now!

 We had a walk around (which didn't take long) and got a lemonade and cotton candy, which Eva couldn't decide if she liked at first but then the sugar rush kicked in and it was all good. She also found a hula-hoop and showed off her impressive skills!

hula-hooping

We took a walk along the river though couldn't go too far as there was no shade and it was really hot. We saw lots of people kayaking and tubing down the river. I desperately wanted to go but I forgot to pack my swim suit. :-( Plus Eva isn't very happy on the water yet. Maybe another time. It looked so relaxing.

The New River Valley.

Steve took Eva down to the water but I decided not to join them. My ankle is stilling playing up from spraining it a few weeks ago. We also stopped at the park on the way back to the car but the climbing things were just too hot to touch!

Checking out the river

We stopped a nice little Mexican for lunch and then for ice-cream for dessert. Unfortunately thanks to my teaching I have tones of work to do so the rest of the day and weekend was spent in my office with cups of tea trying to get the lectures written for next week and get some research done. The joys of teaching!