Washington DC weekend

We had a quiet weekend working on cleaning out our townhouse near DC, with a break to take the girls on their first Metro ride down to see the Smithsonian. The Metro ride may have been the second-best part:

The merry-go-round on the Mall took top honors as the favorite attraction of the day, rating far higher than either the big elephant in the rotunda of the Natural History Museum or the Spirit of St. Louis:

Elisabeth lasted about a nanosecond into the ride before she freaked out, but fortunately there was a bench nearby that we enjoyed for the remainder of the ride.

But after much walking, two tired girls decided to stage their first sit-down protest on the National Mall. I hope it's their last major political statement for a while.

Back at it

Here's the enormous skipjack that is newly inlaid on the front entranceway of our remodeled elementary school. It's about 8 feet across. I think it's pretty cool! The skipjack is the state boat of Maryland and indigenous to local waters.

In workout news, I'm getting back to it slowly after 10 complete days off for this bout of bronchitis. At least it didn't turn into pneumonia like it did last spring (and did this time for my daughter Elisabeth) and cost me even more training time! On the two days that the girls had school this week I got in a couple of runs, and this morning I had a nice easy 30-mile bike ride. Haven't done much swimming to speak of either, since I've had a very cranky shoulder that I was hoping would recover with rest.

Much more to come next week! Taking it slow for now and I'll crank up the speed a bit next week, if I'm able.

PS: I hope all my peeps who are in the path of Hurricane Gustav are taking sensible precautions and evacuating! I'll be watching the news carefully - I hope it doesn't turn out nearly as bad as it looks right now!