A holiday weekend at last

For the first time since January 15th, we finally had a public holiday this past weekend and boy did the good weather arrive just in time. The temperatures soared into the high 80's and the sun was shining the whole weekend. Saturday morning was spent cycling the roads of Anne Arundel and Calvert County with the guys and gals of ABRT, to the tune of 70 miles....definitely working on the cyclist tan lines! It was then back home and try to gather enough energy and willpower to reign in the wild grasses that want to encompass the house. It always seems that as soon as I cut the grass it just pops right back up and needs cutting again within a day or two. Anyway, it was so hot that I didn't really fancy being out in the garden for two hours during the hottest part of the day and I therefore thought it a great idea for us to go and check out a Bowie tradition.....Rita's Ice and Custard. It is actually a nice short walk to the shop and the Oreo's Blendini (a mix of Oreo Cookies, ice and chocolate custard...ice cream to us English Folks) went down a treat and suitably refreshed me enough to come back home and defeat the invading hoards of grass. In the evening we went and saw the new Pirates of the Caribbean installment, which was good although a little long. If you have seen the previous two then I would highly recommend going to see this one.

Sunday saw me rise early to get down to the gym for a hour's swim in the pool, which is now at bath water temperature.....I even saw a mother putting her elbow in to test the temperature :-) It was quickly back to the house and off we went to meet Marc and Jessica and venture up to Camden Yards to watch the O's take on Oakland. Fortunately with a gametime temperature of 94 degrees, we had seats in the shade and watched the O's whoop Oakland 8-4. On the way home we had a personal tour of Savage Mill (Marc and Jessica's nearest town) and had dinner at the Ram's Head Tavern...although I think Marc purposely took us via the Tavern as that is one of his favorite restaurants!!!

Monday was more of a relaxing day. After a very sluggish 2 hour ride I dragged myself out for a short 20 minute "brick" run and tried to get back quickly so we could head out for our picnic. I had consulted the local maps and chosen a park down in Calvert County, Kings Landing Park on the banks of the Patuxent River. The park had some trails and a fishing pier and plenty of flies......so much so that we finally found a spot where we could eat uninterrupted by them. We stood out on the fishing pier watching the world go by (as well as plenty of water skiers, boats, jetskiers etc) and cooled down in the pleasant breeze coming from the river. It was so nice and peaceful out there we could have stayed all day, work seemed so far away.