Great Falls

You know how things seem way more romantic in pictures? And somehow you see pictures of places you go all the time and you wonder why you never noticed the beauty before? There’s this climbing area just outside of D.C. at Great Falls on the Virginia side. You can climb all down the river literally hanging above the water.

It’s really nice because it’s usually in the shade and most of the approaches are only about 10 minute walks. Also, if you’re nice to the ranger he’ll let you park in the “climbing lot” which is a lot closer to the climbing areas.

I was looking through my pics the other day and realized that some of the pictures from Great Falls came out really well. Not that I'm the best photographer but it almost seems like it’s not the same place. It’s just interesting to me how it can seem so different.

Kitty!!!

I came out the other morning to a driveway full of garbage. Doh! The neighbor’s garbage had been ransacked too. Don’t you just love it when the asparagus you tossed last week is now a gooey green liquid?! Yeah.. Good times.

I thought maybe it was a bear because my neighbor said she heard grunting one night. The next week we found a different neighbor’s trash all down the road. But then the other morning I saw something wandering around outside. Wow.. that’s a big cat. No, wait.. that’s a raccoon. A big raccoon. I guess you’d be big too if you were as well fed as this guy.

We have lovingly dubbed our trash fiend “Nermal”. The image is a bit fuzzy but you can make him out.

No hats and no cell phones

The first thing I did when I got here was get online and buy season passes to the local ski resorts. The second thing I did was get online and try to find my way on a sailboat for the summer. I signed up on a crew list for the Windjammer Yacht Club. It was local and free so I figured, why not? A couple of weeks later I got an email from the very experienced captain of a 26 foot J-80. (I say experienced because he directed me to read about one of his recent experiences at sea.) Since then, every Wednesday night is the Beer Can race and just about every weekend is some kind of mid or long-distance regatta. This is a picture of us in the Southern Crossing in late June. Yes, that's snow on the mountains in the background. Very cool.

Courtesy of a phone call from the captain of the J-80, this weekend I'm going to San Francisco to be on the Race Committee for the Aldo Alessio. I really don't know much about it except that it's going to increase my chances of getting a berth on the race committee at the Big Boat Series in September. This is important because both races are run out of the St. Francis Yacht Club and I would like nothing more than to secure a crew berth on the foredeck of a boat for the mid-winter races in the bay this year. What better place to meet someone with a boat and in need of crew than the St. Francis Yacht Club?

I am so excited I am shaking and so nervous my heart is very nearly pounding out of my chest. Apparently this Yacht Club fits all the stereotypes. I started to get nervous when the J-80 captain started briefing me on the Yacht Club rules of etiquette. I never really thought of myself as the Yacht Club type, but this could be really f-ing cool. I leave tomorrow morning around 3am to get to the bay in time. I hope to return with many pictures.