Busy week, beautiful weekend

A week ago today I was on my way home from a 72-hour round trip to Virginia. I drove the whole way there and back by myself. It was tiring, but in a weird way I actually enjoy long road trips. Lord knows I've done enough of them in my life. In fact, 12 hours in a single day is pretty tame. Madison, WI to New Orleans was a killer. Madison to Columbia, SC was agony, especially since my traveling companions were dull. Did the same trip a year later with a different crew and had a blast. I have unhappy memories of a trip from Madison to Lawrence, KS, which was a measly 9 hours but was undertaken in a Ford Aspire, one of those old school tin shitbox economy cars with aerodynamics so poor you can't hear the tape deck from the back seat, which was so butt-numbingly uncomfortable I could only conclude that it was constructed out of flour sacks and packing peanuts swept up from the Ford factory floor. Those are the kinds of trips the college ultimate season throws at you. I won't even get into the numerous "let's drive to Los Angeles!" family vacation extravaganzas I enjoyed as a child. You get the idea.

ANYWAY, 24 hours of driving in three days was enough to leave even a road warrior like myself pretty burned out for a busy week of stuff. None of it terribly significant, just lots of it. Hence no posts. We're back on track now, enjoying a long weekend (yes, Canadian Thanksgiving is here again) of absolutely perfect fall weather. Today we ventured out to Gatineau Park for a nature walk. The sun was shining, trees were in full autumn color, and the temperature made it near 70 degrees. Henry loved following the trail and venturing of the path to explore rock formations and frolic in the leaves. Photos here.