Stay of Execution days 4 to 7 - Georgetown and Great Falls

Taking the opportunity for a lay in, day four started nice and slow with an afternoon wander through Georgetown and it's small colonial streets near the university. No fear of bikes at this stage !!!! The trip was made on the air con luxury of DC's metro (underground to you London lemmings). As you can see the most attractive scene I found for which I thought an obligatory photo should be made was within the local brewery pub 'J Pauls Alehouse'.

Heading toward the Friday five o'clock whistle and my second cheeky ale Amanda's mobile summoned me back to Crystal city and a margerita at her work local !!! Oh it's a hard life.

Having Owen lead an advance party straight from his work to Chadwicks in Alexandria Mig and I caught up by racing down on the bikes in Chips formation with the image a cool beer driving us on !!! Not to mention the odd chicken wing !

Oh no ! not bikes again !!

Intending to lock up the bikes and either walk or taxi it home the best laid plans of mice and men were discarded by my drunken 'jackass' idea to bomb home stealth mode in double time, again in Chips formation on the now lightless bikes under cover of darkness once last time was called on us........ (it seemed a good idea at the time)

A couple of minor mishaps and close encounters of the bushes kind later the giggle crew landed home and crashed into welcome beds !!

Thank fully waking up with only a minor hang over (no doubt based upon the fact I was steaming around in the dark on a mountain bike some hours before) my last full day was spent walking around the Great Falls National Park where the Potomac river forms the border between Virginia and Maryland.

Blessed with another stunning day our decision to walk on the easy Virginia side of the Mather Gorge and under cover of light forest seemed to be the informed one at first thought !

Some ten minutes later however and after having had the most mahoosive black snake tumble between Amanda and I on a trail, I would have happily traded the woods and scary undergrowth for the billy goat rock trail of the Maryland side.


I have to say despite a quick and perfectly justified 'yikes......eeeeee....oooooooooooh' Amanda coped a damn site better than I probably would have had I been in her position ! The damn thing nearly ran across her boots en route down the hill !

At least the adrenalin rush more than ensured she kept pace for the rest of the walk !

After a fine bbq on a newly aquired weber prepared by Owen, the executive decision to take a reasonably early night in preparation for my flight home the next day was made some what irrelevant when my final afternoon was spent in an old 'Dixie' patio in Georgetown slurping Sam Adams over a rib, pulled pork and jalapeno hottie combo !

I felt sorry for the poor sod sitting next to me on the Virgin Atlantic express home to LHR ! I'm sure I can't have smelt too special !!

So with an emotional 'see you soon' to Mig at Dulles International I headed east for a quick pit stop in England and to pick up my bags ready for deployment to Canada !!!!

Huge thanks to Mig and Owen for looking after me so well and for being such excellent hosts !

You have a wonderful home and deserve all the fun you are having ! I hope I can return the favour in BC as soon as possible !