Weekend in the West

Heading west is always a good thing, even if it means driving to West Virginia. It's not the northwest, but it's definitely a nice change in scenery. A friend from work invited us to spend the long weekend with his family at his parent's river house. We enjoyed escaping the hustle and bustle of the city and soaking in some much needed down time. Here's a little capturing of what went on...
The house is about 2.5 hours away. The further we drove, the less we saw bumper to bumper traffic and gatherings of metal skyscrapers. Freeways were replaced with lazy rolling hills. Awe, the joys of the country!

Their house rests on the edge of a river in a low plateau. Due to the season, the river was quite low, but they assured us it grows. Hence, the reason their home is built on platforms.
Along with the clan came Carlos' bull dog, Rocky. We had a lot of fun--perhaps too much fun as I'm not covered in bruises from playing with him.

On Sunday, we ventured to "town," which consists of a market, a gas station, and four restaurants. After getting a quick bite at the pizzeria, we drove to Berkely Springs. George Washington once traveled to this location to take a bath in his personal tub, of which we saw. The venue still provides a Roman Bath experience, where you rent a tub room for 30 minutes to bathe in your private tub full of the mineral spring water. We may have to try this out some day. Outside the bath house, they have streams of the mineral water to play in. Ceci, Noemi, and I decided to take a quick rest in the FREEZING cold water.

As always, when I point the camera toward Jesse, he thinks it's an opportune moment to give a silly face. So, here he is, being a big goof and playing in the trees.

Rocky doing what he does best, hiding beneath the kitchen table.

In preparation for my upcoming run, I have begun training. Each morning, I awoke excited to get outside--not to run, but to experience the country--though running was the ultimate goal. The light fog settled in above the grasses, the cows grazed near the fence so I had some fun conversations with them, and the deer decided to bolt out in front of me whenever I ran past the herd. After my runs, I quickly grabbed the camera to record some of what I saw, though these photos really don't do the place justice...perhaps one day I'll learn how to use this camera!
This is one of my favorites...

Here's the river at its lowest level. Notice the fog...it was absolutely breath-taking. It beats cement sidewalks and telephone poles.

This is the scene from the house. Did I mention they didn't have cable television, Internet, phone, or even cell phone service? Amazing!!! So wonderful to escape the rush of life!