August Adventures

We’ve been at home all of August, but we’ve tried to stay busy with some local adventures that have been fun.  One of the great finds was an area on Goose Creek with a rope swing into a deep water hole that kept the girls and Nina’s two friends occupied for hours.  They had so much fun swinging off into the water, swimming in the creek, and running and jumping into the water.  It was definitely a super fun spot, and they are anxious to go back!

 

  

After that, we got hooked on taking some fun bike trips around the area.  Of the first trips I did with the girls when they were little was biking to Dairy Queen in Herndon.  At the time, it was quite an accomplishment for them to bike there and back, but now it was so easy (too easy, in fact), but they were more than happy to bike their and “earn” their Dairy Queen in Herndon before biking back.

   

On the way back from Dairy Queen, we spotted some Lamborghinis in the parking lot of a car dealership that backed up to the bike trail.  Nina and Lyla wanted to stop and take a look at the cars from the fence, but I convinced them we could “sneak” into the back of the parking lot to get a closer look.  We oogled at the four Lamborghinis we saw, took some pics with our favorites, and were pretty certain that somewhere on a security camera, someone was laughing at us.  Either way, it was a fun little bonus to the trip!  :)

  

The next week we were back on the trail - this time biking to Fireworks Pizza and bringing Uncle Bo.  He drove out to our place, then we parked at the trail and rode out to get pizza lunch and biked back.  It’s one of our favorite spots to stop on the trail and really fun to bring Bo with us.

 

August also thankfully brought back sports!  I didn’t realize how much I missed them until they were gone.  It has been great for the girls to get back to regular practices during the week, seeing their teammates, and keeping active.  Nina doesn’t have any meets on the calendar yet for the fall, but the team is training.  Lyla had two scrimmages in August before her first regular season games this weekend.  It was fun to have a game on the weekends again to watch.  I realized I missed it, and I’m so glad that at least soccer teams in VA are going to get to play this fall!

 

Our next biking adventure was a new one. We drove to Belle Haven Park in Alexandria, had a picnic lunch on the water and fed some ducks, then we hopped on the trail with our bikes and rode to Mount Vernon. The ride was really nice!  A large portion of it was along the river, so the scenery was great, and the path was mostly shady, so it was a nice 15 mile round trip there and back to the park.

 

   

 

 

 I figured the girls earned themselves a stop at the Custard Shack after the ride, so we got ice cream then made our way home.

 

Our biking adventures continued this week as our summer is on a bit of an extension.  The school year was supposed to start this week, but with the switch to 100% distance learning, the county pushed back the first day of school until 9/8.  So, with some extra time on our hands, we got to try out another new ride - this time driving to Bo and Brittany’s apartment in Ballston and biking from their place to the Custis Trail, connecting to the W&OD trail, and riding that into Falls Church for lunch at Liberty Barbecue.  

 

The four of us had a great lunch then biked back to their place for delicious cold brews at Bo’s favorite coffee shop, Compass Coffee. We met up with Brittany at the coffee shop and took a little tour of their super cute neighborhood, then they showed us around their building.  It was the first time that Nina and Lyla had been there, and they loved it!  They’re now convinced they want to live in a city apartment! :) After hanging awhile with Bo and Brittany at their place, we packed our bikes back up on the car and made our way home.  We had such a fun time, and I’m glad for this little extension to our summer before school starts to get in a few more fun adventures while we can.