End of September

During the last week in September, Ben had to go to Las Vegas for several days for work.

It was a good trip and nice that he got to see some family while traveling for work.

Better that the time in Las Vegas, however, was returning home.  To celebrate his return, we took advantage of "free national parks day" and drove down to the Shenandoah Valley to explore for the day. The Shenandoah National Park is very dog friendly, which was good news for Dex and Mo.

We picked a trail to hike and enjoyed the beautiful views at the summit.

The trail gained several hundred feet of elevation in just under a mile. This proved to be quite the challenge for Ben, Kelly and Mo, however Dexter was in his element. He raced up the trail and back down with energy to spare.

After the hike, we headed to the Skyview lodge. The sweeping views and interesting menu made it a great place to stop for lunch.

On our walk through the parking lot with the dogs, we came across a group of 4 girls that were excited/ scared to see Mo and Dex. For the most part they were all very anxious about the dogs, but wanted to pet Mosely. Of course, they instantly feel in love. They spent over 15 minutes petting, hugging, taking pictures and walking Mo around the parking lot. Mo was welcoming of all the love and probably gave those girls an unrealistic impression of dogs! One girl even told us this had been a "once in a lifetime experience."

Lunch was better than average, however their famous homemade blackberry ice cream pie was exceptional.

After lunch we walked around the lodge for awhile before taking the scenic drive throughout some of the park before heading back to DC.

Along the way back, we stopped at a road side store to pick up some fresh apple cider and pumpkin butter that made a pleasant snack when we got home after a big day of exploring.

On Sunday morning, we headed to Alexandria, VA for a round of golf. Due to Ben's knee injury, we had not played together all summer. It was a great day to be outside and even better day to be on the course. After the round, we had a late lunch in Georgetown. While we both enjoy Georgetown for the occasional meal or window shopping, the parking/traffic is a devastating reality of big city living. It makes us appreciate living on Capitol Hill and realize how valuable our parking spot is.