Day 95 - 05/26/2007

With the kids out of the house, D and I enjoyed a quiet morning and both of us slept in. Until 830a. (Sorry, but the days of sleeping until the afternoon have long since gone by the wayside.) Taking advantage of the quiet morning, we enjoyed our breakfast and got ready to face the day.

I finished staining the deck. The spindles were around the bench is all I had left to do, but spindles are detail work and it took a lot longer than I had anticipated. Once done, though, I won't have to do it again for a few years. I'll have to do the horizontal boards sooner, but the spindles are good for a good while.

After finishing the deck, we headed out to Bull Run Park to hike part of the Bull Run-Occoquan trail. I discovered this trail only recently and have been itching to hike it (or, as the case may be, part of it). The 18+ mile trail runs pretty much along the southern border of Fairfax County; from Bull Run in the Northwest to just past Fountainhead in the southeast. One day I'd like to hike the entire length of it, but today we settled on a three mile section of it (an out and back from Bull Run). We left the parking lot around 1130a and made pretty good time. We stopped here and there for snacks and drinks, but for the most part, kept our feet moving. We turned back just past where Route 28 passes over Bull Run and retraced our route back to the car. Well, we thought we were retracing our route.

After crossing Cub Run, we failed to turn back on the trail; instead we followed a different trail for about 1/2 mile before I realized our mistake. I had been using my Forerunner to track our progress and wanted to see how well the return route compared with the outbound route. It was off...waaaaay off. We decided to keep on the trail we were on vs. backtracking again to the correct trail and we came out on the access road. Using the breadcrumb screen, we made our way in the general direction of the starting point and finally got back to the car. When we did, the distance was marked at 5.96 miles. Since we had lost signal a few times, I'll call it a flat six miles. Both of us were ready to sit down and we headed home to shower and cleanup before heading out for dinner.

We had originally planned on going to Coastal Flats, but on a whim we decided to hit The Melting Pot over in Reston. Both of us had been meaning to try it so I gave them a call for a reservation. There were two available: 515p and 830p. Since 830p would have us coming home at a pretty late hour feeling pretty good, we decided on the 515p reservation. Sure, it was early, but that way we could still take in a movie afterwards. (We ended up renting Casino Royale vs. going to one in a theatre as nothing was out that floated our boat.) It was our first attempt at fondue in a restaurant setting. I thought it was alright, but definitely not worth the price we paid. I'm not sure, but I just got the impression we were eating at a Ruby Tuesday's or some other corporate chain establishment (which, I found out, is what this is). After the fact, I wish we had gone to Coastal Flats. Even though we go there every now and again, the food is excellent, the service is top notch and the beverages are freshly brewed.

As for the movie, D didn't like it although I thought it was a good movie...as far as Bond movies go. What I did like about it was how it told the story behind how Bond became Bond, from the Aston Martin to his lack of a preference for his martinis to be shaken or stirred to his choice in Bond girl.

For the first time in I don't know how many years, I had one of those candy necklaces. (You know the type -- where you bite the pieces of candy off the elastic.)