11/9/12

Places to Go - The Virginia Side of Great Falls (McLean, VA)

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A few weeks ago the girls' had an early release from school so I decided to plan an outing to Great Falls National Park to check out the fall scenery.

When the girls were toddlers, we used to visit Great Falls (the VA side) relatively often, the stroller-friendly overlooks are only a short walk from the parking lot, making the falls a great place to go with young children. Some days we'd spend hours there - picking up sticks, running through the trails, and just enjoying the outside world. But now that the girls are older (F turned 7 last month and P will turn 6 this weekend) neither of them seemed thrilled about the possibility of an afternoon outdoors, P said "that sounds boring" about one hundred times (okay, so I'm exaggerating a little). I finally convinced them to go by insisting that Coco the Dog really needed this "family time."

Luckily, once we arrived the beautiful weather and gorgeous scenery kept the boredom away - the kids climbed rocks, found trees with "secret hiding places", ran with the dog, and "explored."

Eventually we ventured into the forested area, overwhelmed and a little spooked by the sound of about a million birds (okay, so I'm exaggerating again). Eventually they all swarmed in our direction and for a minute they almost blacked out the sky. Pretty amazing. On the walk back, F told me "you were right mom, sometimes you need a day like this." Of course.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYONE!!! (And if you're curious, the MD side of the falls is also a great place to visit, though very different, check out our past post here).

WEEKEND LINKS:

*How do tech companies make money? Interesting. (link via Altruism in the Morning)

*KidFriendly DC has an AMAZING guide to DC's Holiday events. Check it out here.

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2 comments:

  1. I think you just inspired an outing for us this wknd. Haven't been to the VA side for awhile... have intended to go on our last couple of trips to GF, but I always miss the exit and end up going to MD. This time I will pay better attention. :)

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