Mild update.

Well things are starting to wind down from a very busy summer. Last week on Thursday Terri left work early and we headed down to Williamsburg for a couple of days. Thursday night we had dinner at Captain George's, where we all stuffed ourselves on good seafood. Except the crabs...they were awfully small.

We got up Friday and went to Busch Gardens, our favorite theme park. Anheuser Busch has been very gracious in allowing active duty military folks to take their family to one of their parks for the last several years through their Hero Salute program. I hate to pay for the trip when Terri retires, but I will anyway, and I'll always appreciate what they've done for us.

It started pouring down rain shortly after we parked. I'm talking about buckets, and we were soaked though every piece of clothing we had on. We rode the Loch Ness Monster despite the rain, then sought cover until the rain subsided sometime shortly after noon. We were too wet to visit any of the shows, which are normally cool places to retreat, so we wandered around in took in a few rides. Jason rode the swings when Sam and I went to the "Scrambler" type ride. We rode a few other things and dried as we walked around riding favorite coasters and other rides.

We visited the lorikeet aviary which made us all miss having a bird I think, and took in the grey wolf show. Impressive animals! Somewhere in there we had lunch at Das Festhaus and in the early evening we let the kids go out on their own for a while. Terri and I took in the Irish dance/music show, which was very impressive, and met the kids when they arrived at our designated spot right on time. We left the park about a half-hour before closing to avoid traffic, and had dinner at Red Hot & Blue.

We putzed around Saturday morning and did a little shopping and browsing before leaving for home.

Saturday was also my Dad's birthday, but since we had already planned our trip, the family met at his house on Sunday to celebrate with some BBQ and dogs and stuff.

Monday morning Mike picked Jason up for a week with Nana and Happy like Sam had earlier in the summer. This had been planned for the end of July, but Annie had knee replacement surgery scheduled in there so we delayed Jason's week. Annie's recovery is going better than expected, so we got the visit in this week.

Sam and I headed up to Edinburg, VA for some fly fishing. The waders that I bought for Jason a couple of years ago fit her perfectly now. Anyway, we started the day with a visit to Murray's Fly Shop for some advice and a couple of flies. I own or have read a couple of his books and I believe that he's one of the most knowlegable fly fishermen on the east coast, certainly the most knowlegable in Northern and Western Virginia. He was very personable and pointed out a couple of spots on his map, both places that I was familiar with. He asked about Sammy wading and wanted to make sure that the places he suggested would be safe. I really prefer to catch fish on flies I've tied myself, but I think his advice was certainly worth the $20 worth of business. Should have just bought some materials, huh?

Anyway, we hit the water at Chapman's Landing in the early afternoon and I caught a couple of small smallmouth bass and couple of sunfish, and Sam caught one sunfish. Mostly it was getting Sam used to being in the current again and casting in the water, and she did fine. I was disappointed to find a carload of...non-English speaking people...in the water. This is a game department ramp and is clearly marked that use other than for fishing or hunting is prohibited. I was more disturbed to find three carloads when we returned. Not that we couldn't hear the Tejano music as we approached from 1/4 mile down the river, or smell the smoke from the grill...

Around 2:30 we left and drove the couple of miles to Woodstock, bought Sam some polarized sunglasses and got some lunch, and hit the second spot, where we found another car load of non-English speaking people in the river. They don't swim, they sort of plop down and lay or sit in the river. What's up with that? Anyway, we hung around for a bit to let the sun drop a little, then hit the water again a little before 5. We both need some work on our stealthy wading technique, but we managed a few more fish including the one that you'll find the picture of Sam holding. Before it started to get dark, we headed back to the car, both of us worn out from wading and wearing neoprene waders.

Got out of the waders and headed home, both too tired to eat!

And that's the last few days in a nutshell. Here's the pictures:

One of the Clydesdales watching the pouring rain. Which we were in for quite a while.	Jason enjoys one of the first few rides of the day, once the rain had stopped.	One of the injured bald eagles that Busch Gardens keeps.
Terri caught me and the kids on the Battering Ram.	Sam with a long-ear sunfish on the North Fork of the Shenandoah River.	A little wider view of Sam with her fish, showing more of the river.