DC and Cincinatti

The next stop of my journey involved heading down to DC to see the Woods family. Despite some heavy snow in Pitt the drive down was pretty easy and fairly scenic. After catching up for a little while with my relatives Marlies and I decided to take a trek down to Great Falls National Park, just a few miles away from their home! The park was very nice as the Great Falls of the Potomac River are truly magnificent

Courtesy of the National Park Service

Overall a fun hike and really a gem for being so close to DC! That evening we had a nice home cooked meal and I got the chance to learn the Wood's favorite game Bananagrams which is kinda like a very fast paced scrabble game.

My second day in DC Mary, Marlies, and I all went to the Mall (not the shopping kind) in downtown DC. There we braved the cold and toured most of the monuments and spent a good amount of time checking out the Museum of Natural History which is quite cool!

DC was quite incredible! The sites were hard to beat and getting the chance to spend time with the Wood's was quite the pleasure. I'm hoping to get that chance again sooner than later!

After DC I made my way out to Cincinatti to see Karen, Greg, and Zack (Jess was still abroad). The first half of the drive out was real nice driving through the rolling hills of VA and into the Mountains of PA and WV.

I stopped at the Green Ridge State Forest in Maryland as it was right off the highway and boasted a scenic overlook. I would have loved to stop and explore a bit as it looked beautiful but I was on a tight schedule as I only had 1 night to spend with my relatives in Cincinatti. I took a quick video of the overlook.

The second half of the drive was pretty much all through agricultural land, mostly corn fields. This is how the rest of the drive would be to Indianapolis and through the I-35 route back up to mn (through Illinois, Iowa, and Southern MN). Not the most exciting driving but a few days of boring driving is still well worth the weeks of incredible beauty I had before.

In Cincinnati we spent most of our time catching up as it's been 5 years or so since we've been together and I only had that evening and part of the next day. It was really great to hear what Karen and Greg had been up to and I am glad to have been welcomed in their home! Hopefully next time I will have a greater amount of time so it doesn't feel so rushed!