We took a trip to the National Zoo in Washington, DC one day. The kids liked seeing all the animals and it was a good place to get some exercise walking around, even if we all were required to wear our masks the whole time. Here's a sea lion swimming around. The zoo had a very limited number of visitors per day due to Covid and indoor exhibits were closed.
The prairie dog exhibit is entertaining watching the prairie dogs dart in and out of their holes and tunnels.
The lions were lounging.
Inside of the elephant house.
The elementary school mascot is a cheetah, so of course we had to spend some time looking at the real cheetahs. We had a fantastic view of 2 cheetahs, maybe 10 feet from us (that didn't really show up in this particular picture since the camera focused on Lydia).
Derek frequently decides he wants to dress up in costume. This is one of his own creation with a Buzz Lightyear shirt, backpack, sword, and his stuffed beagle Douglas. The pièce de résistance of course is his underwear on his head.
One week, he was particularly cooperative and did a good job with his chores, so he was promised a pirate sword toy. Unfortunately, after multiple failed attempts to find the promised sword at various Walmarts, and after him continuing to be a good boy as we were driving around looking for a drill bit to finish our shower remodel, we chanced into a Party City location that was going out of business and liquidating. After a few trips there that weekend, we wound up with various costumes and accessories (to include a few pirate swords). Here's his new pirate costume.
The kids each got a Harry Potter wizard outfit (note Lydia who drew a lightning scar on her forehead).
Lydia also got a stormtrooper outfit that could double as an astronaut costume since she is still very interested in space.
Even before the coronavirus pandemic hit, we were looking for an end of summer getaway and had reserved a week's stay in a cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, a few miles outside of Shenandoah National Park. The pandemic hurt many of our travel plans this spring and summer, but this trip wound up being a good location since it was only a couple hours from our home and the rural location made it very easy to practice good social distancing and other measures. We spent a lot of time in the National Park and the surrounding area on that trip but those pictures will be covered in our next blog post. The rest of the pictures in this post will be things we did at the cabin and the surrounding neighborhood. When we first pulled in to the cabin, the first thing the kids wanted to try was the zip line. It looked like fun (but was for kids only).
The cabin was waterfront to a small lake/large pond with kayaks, canoes, and a paddle boat. We took several trips out on the water to get some exercise and have fun.
Here's Tanja sitting on the back porch with the lake and back yard in the background. It was a beautiful location.
The cabin had a nice covered and screened porch with log furniture that was nice for relaxing.
More pictures paddling in the lake.
There was a nice stream running through the yard of the cabin feeding the lake. We saw a couple deer coming through the yard on several occasions. We were also warned to keep the trash bins closed tight with bungee cords to prevent bears from getting into it. Even though we followed those instructions, on our last morning, our bins had been tipped over on its side and the trash bags ripped apart by some animal - I am assuming it was a bear.
Tanja promised the kids a campfire. Unfortunately, the wood we found was still damp from earlier rain, so I failed to deliver a roaring campfire, but we did get a little one started and maintained for a few minutes - enough for the kids to play with anyway.
I think Snoopy really liked the cabin. I'm sure it was full of interesting sniffs for him. Here he is bravely crossing the stream on a little bridge.
The lake had a beach area that we rowed to several times for the kids to play and swim.
The hot tub was a fun place to splash and play.
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