weekend adventures: roosevelt island

Another weekend with grand plans, another weekend's grand plans thwarted by Mother Nature...

When I heard that it was going to be 60 degrees on Saturday, I knew that we had to get out of the house (cabin fever is running rampant over here after a solid week of rain) and I looked forward to packing up a picnic, throwing the dogs in the car and going for a hike. I even baked hamburger buns from scratch the night before and mixed up a batch of egg salad and bought containers of chocolate milk...and most shockingly, was up early on Saturday morning so we could hit the road.

Except it wasn't 60 degrees. It was 46 degrees and gray. 46 degrees is not picnic weather.

So we waited. It was 46 degrees at 10 am. It was 46 degrees at 11 am. It was 46 degrees at noon. It was 46 degrees at 1 pm - so at that point we decided to eat our picnic at the dining room table.

We ate our egg salad sandwiches and drank our chocolate milk. And then the sun came out and the sky turned blue.

So we threw the dogs in the car and headed to Roosevelt Island and crossed our fingers that we'd get a parking spot. Roosevelt Island is an island in the Potomac River between Virginia and DC. It's a surprising bit of nature surrounded by the city - with views of Georgetown, Key Bridge, and the tall buildings of Rosslyn. We used to go there when I lived in Arlington because it was so close, but we haven't been back since we moved to Falls Church and we'd never taken the dogs.



The island is home to a swamp with a boardwalk (made even swampier due to the rains), and also one of the most disturbing statues I've seen in this country.


But we got our afternoon hike in, the dogs were satisfied, and then all four of us came home, fell asleep, and slept through dinner!

(Actually, the dogs fell asleep in the car.)

You're a good pillow, Gravy.