great falls

i found my "happy spot" for the summer of 2011.

it involves water and nature and it is 15 minutes away from work and 25 from home. and it is a national park! yay for deciding to go to great falls park on a whim sunday night and going back today after work. i honestly fell in love with this spot last night and just being there for almost 3 hours today has made me so happy. and with all the crazy i'll be going through this summer i knew i was going to need to find a happy spot and well my happy spots usually revolve around water and nature and so i can't wait to go back!



sunday afternoon i felt i needed to do something fun and i was deciding on either great falls or manassas (the civil war battlefield) and decided on great falls as it was getting late and it was closer. and such a great choice! it was super crowded even at almost 6pm and everyone was picnicking and enjoying memorial day weekend. i looked at the falls for a bit from the different viewpoints and then i wanted to find a nice place to sit and relax and enjoy nature. i walked down a path along the river and saw these rocks and knew it would be a great place. and i spent the next hour and a half with my kindle just enjoying the view, the sounds of the rushing river and just being content with nature. so as it started to get dark i sadly packed up and left knowing i found a great spot.

the potomac river is super high right now and the river is moving realllly fast!

such a great spot and only 20 minutes from dc!

this shows the high water marks from different floods... note you really can't see the river from here. that's how crazy redic the flooding was. a majority of the marks are over my head. 

so finding great falls was a great part of my weekend! but there was even more fun to be had! friday after work i went out with a few co-workers to dinner at cheesecake factory and then saw hangover 2. which was funny - but pretty much the same as the hangover. it was a fun night of laughs and talking about the impending crazy which starts in less than a week! 

jeanne, me, jones & amy

and saturday was super fun! one of my college friends (one of my rowers) is getting married in two weeks and it was her bachelorette! so instead of the usual bar crazy it was slightly different. we all went to a high ropes adventure course for the afternoon and it was a blast. now i LOVE this kinda stuff. give me a harness and put me at 40 feet above ground! we had a fun on the zip line and being monkeys in the air. her mom took a ton of pictures - so hopefully in a few days i'll have some! after the outdoors fun we went to dinner and it was a fun afternoon! i can't wait for the wedding! after that amy & jeanne came to stay with me in arlington and we had a fun night out in my neighborhood. i haven't really explored the local night scene and i'm glad we did. we went to this great spanish place for sangria and tapas. and it made me miss spain like whoa! and the out to a few bars before crashing back at my place. we are such grandmas - we were only out until like 11.30. oops! sunday morning we went to brunch at this yummy place in arlington and then they hit the road. so it was a fun visit and i can't wait to see them again in a few weeks for the wedding. i've been so spoiled the last few months getting to see my friends so much!

and today i had to work... but with the office quiet except for my team we got a lot accomplished. our staff training is on sunday! so lots to do in the next few days! i can't believe june is here so fast! where did april/may go? eeeeek! but after work i decided i needed some nature and went to great falls again! and i spent 3 hours in bliss!

 gotta love the pink shoes and nature!

how was your memorial day? do you have a "happy place"