FALL IS IN THE AIR?

Labor Day is behind us and I guess that means autumn is coming… but you wouldn’t know it.  It is still HOT here.  And I’m still a couple weeks shy of the halfway point in my Spanish training, so there’s nothing different about my daily routine.  But the days are noticeably shorter – it gets light later and the sun sets sooner, so I can tell a big change is coming.  I will miss the long hours of sunlight, but I will not miss the heat and humidity.  So bring on the fall!

We spent Labor Day at Mount Vernon.  It had been a trip we’d been planning to do at some point, but had been waiting until the throngs of summer tourists had departed.  Labor Day was a great day to go!  It wasn’t too busy and we had great weather for it.  It’s only about half an hour from our place in Arlington, so it was a great destination for a day trip.  The grounds are beautiful and the buildings are well preserved (or recreated, in a few instances).  Here are some pics from our outing:

The main house and the great lawn

Casa de Jorge Washington

The veranda at the main house

View of the Potomac from the veranda

The (rebuilt) greenhouse and gardens

They also had some "heritage" livestock on the grounds

Andrew made a new friend.  Why the long face?

Next up, Andrew heads back to Portland for a week later this month, and then maybe we’ll get a little trip or two in during one of the holiday weekends we have coming up.  But for the most part, our current routine will continue unchanged – I’ll be learning Spanish and Andrew will be working from the apartment.  The only thing that will be changing anytime soon is the color of the leaves outside.  Happy fall everyone!