"Wild and Wonderful" West Virginia

This past week had been somewhat of a headache - Joe had Project Management class all 5 days (um hello, we don't do 5 day weeks!) and I...well...was having a normal work week, complete with nagging boss. So, we were quite happy to participate in a mini weekend getaway to the Charles Town/Harpers Ferry area of West Virginia with my mom and Chuck. Turns out, it only takes two hours to get there from CB.

To start, I picked Joe up from work around 11:00a.m. and we got on our way. Somehow we must have timed our trips perfectly because we ended up arriving at our hotel within 5 minutes of my mom. We had a late lunch at Applebee's, scouted out the place where we'd need to go the next day for our activities, and checked into our hotel. The highlight of the day was getting to go swimming in a pool for the first time all summer. After our dip, we all showered and headed out to Charles Town Races and Slots (must be read like the commercial... Charrrlllleeeesssttttooowwwnnn Races and Slotttsss do do do do do do doooo). I enjoyed watching a couple horsey races, as I call them, but kept all my money in my purse where it belongs. We also had tons of yummy Diner food for dinner.


Saturday was when we really got to play. We did a full day of tubing on the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers through the River Riders company. A "full day" entails a morning of flat water tubing, returning for lunch, and an afternoon of white water tubing. We had great weather which made for an even better day. The flat water tubing was my favorite - you could lay there and cruise along forever. The river is very shallow but it's nice to be able to stop and picnic or just play around whenever you want. Sadly, I was too scared to bring my camera along being I didn't know what to expect so I have no pictures of our day.

The white water tubing was fun but a lot of work. The water level of the river is low during the dry summer months so you spend a lot of time pushing yourself off of rocks. Also, when they first drop you off you at a very wide section of the river and instructed to paddle all the way to the other side before proceeding. Holy geeez, it was a lot of paddeling - my arms are soar! This picture from the company's website might be a little exaggerated illustration of what we did, but because it might make us seem a little braver than we really are, i'll include it.


After all of the fun, we ate dinner (where Joe won a stuffed monkey out of a claw machine and is very proud of this accomplishment) and Joe and I made the trip back home. We are excited to tube again some day since it is so close. I love being in water on hot summer days!