My Week in Paradise - August 2003

We have a great tradition of reading, playing games, tubing in the river, napping, and making up for any healthy eating we may have done the rest of the year.

My 15 year old, Thomas, makes sure all waking moments are occupied in swimming, meals, or games. He does like to read, too - so we do get an occasional break from the family activities.

We bring along a couple of bicycles, and make at least one ride up to Woodstock Tower. (2,000 feet in elevation, about 2.5 miles from the cabin). This time, two of us rode bikes, two jogged, and two walked with the dog. The good news is that I rode one of the bikes, and beat my 17 year old son and cartoonist, Nick, on the other bike. The bad news is that 22 year old daughter Kelly beat us both on foot. It takes about 45 minutes by bike to get up the mountain, and then 15 minutes to come back down. Kelly ran up in under 35 minutes.

I played several games of chess with 20 year old son, Russ. My memory is that we roughly split them, that is the luxury of not keeping accurate records.

The nice thing about the cabin is that it is only 5 miles from a major grocery store, lots of antique shops, and a winery not too much further away. Wife Laurie and daughter Kelly went out shopping a couple of times, leaving the rest of us to do some serious male bonding. It was too early in the season to watch football on TV, so we spent the time napping and tubing.

The Shenandoah River out back	A view of the cabin from the river
Nick about to swing off the rope into the river	Another view of the dock
Obligatory family portrait from last year	Nick, Thomas, Russ, Laurie, and Kelly from this year
The road leading up to Woodstock tower	We had to stop a couple of times to let Nick rest
One of many hairpin curves	Woodstock Tower
The view from Woodstock Tower. You can barely make out a couple of the "7 bends of the Shenandoah River."	Looking down the steps
Wife Laurie enjoying the view	We didn't mind the occasional rain shower. It was still paradise..