Weekend Report: Outsidey Activities!

I’m starting to sound like a broken record here, but good weather! Springtime! Weekending! Outsidey activities!!!

I kicked off the weekend with a Friday night baseball game, which was super-fun until the Nats lost in the worst way at the very end. Oooh well. It looked and smelled and sounded like baseball (bright green and reddish brown, bar-b-q smoke and hot dogs, thousands of people talking with the announcer calmly announcing in the background), which was enough for me!

I woke up Saturday morning with no plans other than 8 am yoga, and of course ended up doing and doing and doing things all day. All good things though! Good outsidey things, that is – as all the good things are this time of year.

What we're the things? Everything and nothing per usual – I pretty much drifted from place to place and sat outside. First at Union Market, then in a friend's backyard, then to switch things up I threw in a bike ride for some actual activity, which resulted in some mid-ride sitting in the sun at Yard's Park. But we did ride a decent ways: around the National Arboretum twice, past RFK stadium, down to the Navy Yard, then back home for a sun burning leisurely 16-ish miles.

Map details.

On Sunday, in celebration of springtime and Nikki’s birthday, I went for my first hike of the year in Shenandoah. Six of us, plus our four-footed mascot, hiked Elizabeth's Furnace to Buzzard Rock to Signal Knob.

I'm all about chatting while I'm running with people, but for some reason hiking is different. On a trail through the woods my mind wanders more and better than it does anywhere else – the stories in my head, that in daily life I don't have the time or attention span to tend and worry and develop to perfection, get more and more elaborate as I perpetually put one foot in front of the other, occasionally coming back to reality to dip in and out of my companions' conversation.

The hike ended up being a relaxing (because it’s hiking) but grueling (because I was tired) 10 miles up and down and up and down some "mountains." (Gotta put that in quotes, as I am on the East Coast.)

It was one of our friend's first hike ever! Seriously, guys, how is that even possible? I’m happy to report that he had fun.

It was a glorious way for me to spend any Sunday, and for Nikki to spend the last day of her 25th year! (Happy Birthday Nikki!!!)