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!

Memorial Day weekend

Most of the weekend was spent chilling out and sorting things ready for the start of traveling next week. I did manage to get to the pool and sit in the sun for a while on Saturday. The apartment complex has a nice little pool on site and on Saturday morning I had it all to myself. :-)

My apartment pool

On Sunday I went for a picnic organized by someone in the department. It was nice and the food was good, though I forgot to take any photos. It was fun watching people on the tightrope someone had set up. I decided not to have a go. Firstly because my legs are broken after my workout on Friday, and secondly, I didn't want to break anything! It did not look easy.

Yesterday was Memorial day here so I finally got a day off. So I tagged along with my friend Steve and his daughter to the zoo at the Natural Bridge. We had a great time and the weather was beautiful.

White Bengal tiger

Goats.

Kids!

We also brought a bag of feed and fed any animal we could find!

Feeding the goats ...

... And the Donkey ...

... And the camels

But my favorite was the giraffe! He/she was so sweet and gentle.

So sweet

Feeding the giraffe

After lunch in Lynchburg and an ice-cream (as we accidentally found a cafe next to an ice-cream shop!), and a bit of a detour (the map was rubbish), we ended up at Boxwood nature reserve which was a great kids section (and made me wish I was 5 again!).

Tree house.

Making mud pies.

Radnom skull

Queen of the castle

The only slightly odd thing was there were lots of bones and skulls lying around, which was a little sinister. But made for some good photos.

It was a lovely day and we stopped at a country food store on the war back, where, if I was around for a while, I would have spend so much money!

On the evening I chilled out with a glass of wine, Skyped friends, and wrote a list of things to pack. :-)