In Search of Adventure

Poppy Love.

What a fantastic weekend!  We had long standing plans to see Cars2 in the theater with James, so we scoped out an early Saturday 2-D showing and met up with Uncle David for the occasion.  The whole thing went as well as could be expected...James was awed from the moment we entered the darkened theater and was motionless in his seat for at least 20 minutes.  Unfortunately, the 30 minutes of previews took it's toll on James' stamina in the 2nd half of the feature film.  At least we had plenty of company as we walked around the theater.  We got home in time for a nap...except James had other ideas.  We had a last minute invite to test out a neighbors new smoked ribs...and who refuses an opportunity like that?  So we whipped up some baked brie and walked a napless James to the party.  We left with bellies full of ribs, beans, kale salad and strawberry shortcake to die for...but James ate only Cheerios, having refused anything unfamilar.  We filled him up with scrambled eggs and got him to bed very late...

...and were gifted with a rare late morning wakeup on Sunday!  I put together a gourmet breakfast of bacon, eggs and fruit.  Again, the kiddo had his own plans which did not include eating when we ate.  I left it to Daddy and James to negotiate a settlement:  four bites in exchange for a huge lollipop later.

I will admit, I didn't immediately recognize the brilliance of this deal.  That monster pop had been hanging out in the fruit bowl for months and I was dreading the attention it was generating. A toddler on a sugar high is an experience, for sure, and not one I'm usually up for...but it turns out that James just licks the candy and very little is actually consumed.

So, we packed the pop and set out on an adventure.  Mark has recently read about an island park in the Anacostia that had hosted a blues festival.  It turns out that there are two islands, accessible by walking bridges.  They were created when the river was dredged in 1916 and had been largely neglected until recently.  As we were crossing the bridge, we could see turtles floating in the shallow water with their noses in the air.  A much larger animal caught my eye swimming in the river - a rare and up close beaver sighting!  As we walked the loop around the first and smaller island, we saw blackberry brambles, birds and dragonflies, flowers, a discarded snake skin.  One stretch of the path was much wetter, with stepping stones and plank bridges over thick mud.  As we crossed over to the larger island, Kingman, we stopped to investigate a parked mini-loader.  The path through this area was actually a wide gravel road, though we found an abandoned log cabin in the woods.

See RFK in the distance?

All smiles.

That little dark spot is a beaver.

Snake skin.

Mud, thick oozy mud.

A digger!

Who builds a house with no door?

All of that walking worked up a appetite!  So we put down the pop and enjoyed some Mickey D's for lunch.  James at most of a 6 piece nuggets - no prompting needed.  Once home, we all settled in for a long afternoon nap.  We were a bit off schedule for the evening routine, but it was all worth it for our fun island adventure.