Billy Goat Trail Hike

It's been awhile since I went hiking, but I managed to pull one off this past Saturday. I went with Olympia, Gregory, Katerina, and Buck to the Billy Goat Trail, Section A in particular. The trail runs along the Great Falls section of the Potomac River and starts at a trailhead that's only a twenty minute drive from my house.

The Maryland bank has huge rock piles along the edge of Mather Gorge.

Mather Gorge

While the complete circuit is only about 3.8 miles, I ended up as exhausted as on the eight mile hikes I did last year. Some of that is probably from being a bit of a slacker when it comes to exercise lately, but the difficulty of clambering over boulders also had a lot to do with it. However, unlike Cunningham Falls, where I went with Gregory earlier in the year, this hike raised my liking for the Maryland outdoors.


Potomac River

Olympia (with some occasional help from me or Buck) spent a fair amount of the hike helping Gregory up or down the most rugged terrain, although the following picture certainly suggests it wasn't so hard she couldn't get a glamorous smile in at the same time.


Olympia, Helpin' and Grinnin'

It was also nice to have a chance to hang out with Buck outside of the office.


Buck on a Rock

About two thirds of the way through the hike, there's an "emergency exit" that takes hikers that are too tired back to the towpath that leads back to the trailhead along the canal. Olympia took the kids that way, while Buck and I pushed on to what ended up being the much rougher last third. I slipped at one point and came down really hard on my shin on a rock outcropping, turning a hunk of it into a nasty hamburger looking wound that required a stop to clean off some blood and use (for the first time since I bought it) the first aid kit I always carry on hikes. I don't have a picture of that, although Buck took one I probably won't share once I get a copy.

Oh, no activity involving photography and Katerina would be complete without her getting her chance to pose, so here's one of her:


Katerina and the Muddy Creek Bed

All in all, this was a good time, about four hours out in the hot, summer sun. It's a strenuous hike and probably was a bit much for Gregory, but I recommend this one to anyone that can go.

Trip to New York

Olympia and I headed up to New York Monday and came back Tuesday. We took the train up there, stayed in a hotel in SoHo, went to dinner at our favorite Indian restaurant on 6th Street, and went to a play in the evening. While waiting for the play's showtime to come around, we went into Joe Allen's, another restaurant on Restaurant Row, which is 46th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues.

We had a minor brush with celebrity there as we were seated at the bar, in that Harvey Keitel was seated with a few other people at the table closest to where we were sitting. Olympia started grinning her face off, as she thought about his lines from Pulp Fiction, especially the one where he cautions the other characters not to, well, start congratulating one another quite yet, only put much more graphically. If you've seen the movie, you probably know the line I mean, and if not, that's probably okay.

Tuesday, we stopped at the Toys-R-Us in Times Square, which is utterly huge and has a ferris wheel right in the store, roughly three stories high. Apparently, nowhere on the east coast is there a store with an Xbox for sale between Christmas and New Year's Day, which is just awful, since I was going to buy one. It seems like certain companies (*cough* Microsoft, Sony *cough*) seriously underestimated demand. After Toys-R-Us, we went back to Penn Station and headed south again on the train. There was little point in doing much else, as Olympia was whining horribly in a pitiful and weak way (can I fit the word "petulant" in here, too?) about the cold every second we were outside. What a weather lightweight!

Olympia's New Job

Olympia (my wife, for those readers that may not yet be aware) has just been offered a job by the American Red Cross. It turns out that she'll be getting more salary at this job than any she's previously had. It's also a mix of work that's perfect for her - 25% research, 75% administrative.

I'm really happy for her and proud of her for getting a quality job so quickly. I felt confident she would, and it's great that my confidence in her abilities was so right on target.

Obviously, her taking a job, especially this particular job for reasons I won't get into right now and after so many years at home focused on raising our children, will mean some significant changes to our lives. I'm sure we'll work through them, but it's certainly true that even good changes cause stress.