Church Upcounty -> Upmountain

    Well today we thought would be a fairly well-planned day - play at The Church Upcounty (TCU) in the morning (we do this once a month with my relative/friend Josh) and then later in the day head out to Jackson's for Wendy's birthday celeb. So after every time we play at TCU we end up going to Red Robin next door, so this was to be no different. By the time we got there it was already after 12 (the service this morning had communion with it so we got out a bit later) - 1st off I want to give a shout out to the band - love playing with you guys! - and then we waited about 15 minutes for a table (which is odd since we were waiting for a highchair for little D, and you'd think Red Robin would have a bazillion of them around - anyway :), so by the time we got out it was 1 pm. As we were heading back, I knew we had a 35 minute drive on the interstates to get back, so I wasn't looking forward to the city interstate drive. But as I just got onto the interstate I saw the fall leaves on the trees to the West, and it just seemed so appealing, so I was about to swerve back on the road so I could go the other way on the interstate. Well I didn't, but was wishing I did as we were headed back to the city. Amy was on the phone and I started to tell her I wanted to go the other way - she said it was okay but probably didn't fully understand my plan, which was really at the point just to take a drive in the country. The next exit was but 4 miles away (our friend Gamez's exit), so I had to drive a bit before turning around. By that time Amy was really wondering what was going on. So I was able to make the turn back, and then a few miles later Amy was off the phone and then really wondering what I was doing.
    So thus began our Sunday drive! It was really great once the interstate shrunk in lanes - what beautiful trees! If only we had our camera with us (hopefully we will just leave it in the car in the future). We drove a ways further, then we saw signs for Sugarloaf Mountain. Well here I thought that was interesting - because I didn't think there were any mountains close to the city. Neither of us had ever been to Sugarloaf, so we decided to check it out. Interestingly the only signs were for the winery, but Amy knew there was an actual mountain there, so we pressed on. It was a nice drive again, rolling hills for awhile, then we picked up a spaghetti squash and apple cider at a farm stand at a crossroads. There we asked if there were any hikes on the mountain (at that point the mountain was in clear sight - who knew!) - and they had mentioned a few hikes there.
    So we pressed on. Then we came to an entrance - it looked like there were a few, and we saw people handing things to people in cars. Well there were cars behind us, so we had to continue in this path even if we didn't want to! When we came to those people at the base of Sugarloaf Mountain, they handed me a map and another sheet and said "Have a nice day". Well, I was surprised, no park entrance fees, no nothing! (BTW, keep me honest in contributing to the folks who run Sugarloaf mountain, for providing a Mountain free for public use) We drove up a ways, found parking (we were a little leery when the sheet said that some of the parked cars had been vandalized during the day even on the weekends, but there were so many people there so we figured a car with all of the instruments I brought to play at church would be somewhat safe), and there was a great view out east toward the city (the sheet said you could see the Washington Monument, but we couldn't because it wasn't clear, but we could see at least 20 miles away). We then decided to go up the mountain. There was a 1/4 mile hike up - shouldn't be bad, you would think. But it was a steep uphill, and it seemed like a lot longer than 1/4 mile ( I should note we ran 4 miles the day before, for me a big deal (not as much so for Amy)) Again, at the top it was some great views, this time out west. The sun was shining so bright too. There were some people practicing rock climbing, a few deaf people I noticed, people of all ages, just a great little atmosphere there. We took another path down, it was stone steps most of the way down (those were built about 100 years ago, not sure if it still is exactly the same as then, but still impressive for a 200 foot descent). Again, wish we had pictures!
    So then we drove down the mountain, and I still wanted to go thru the country to get home (cross the bridge of the Potomac at US 15 near Leesburg) - so we took one of the roads there randomly, and then at a crossroads we stopped at a gas station to see which way to go, and then about 20 minutes later we were crossing the Potomac, on our way home.
    We decided just to be adventurous - no GPS, no phone to get directions, no maps. It just felt quite liberating, and what a great way to spend a Sunday!
    Well if you've read this far, thanks for listening to the first installment in our Blog! Hope you all have a great week!