No kids!

While the kids are away, the parents will play!  Right?!  A little, but not as much as we though!  I ended up having to work a lot more than usual, which is good.  But that long list of things I was going to do while the girls were gone didn't really get done.  I did have my day of prayer though.  I went to a lake and found a quiet spot to read and pray for the day.  It was very peaceful and relaxing.  I did get rained on at one point, but even that was kinda nice.

Jason and I went on a date to the Visionary Art Museum.  It was pretty neat.  There's always some stuff that I do not get.  But there was an awful lot that I thought was really cool and even inspiring.  I did get an idea for Christmas garland!  The robot/space alien/Christmas room was amazing.  Amazing in a "what in the world" kind of way.  I can't even really describe it.  It was a bad dream of HinduAlienRobotChristmasSkulls all in one.  Anyway, the driftwood playhouse was cool.

We also went camping at Deep Creek in Garrett County.  Since there were no kids to take pictures of, I have lots of pictures of Jason.  We hiked up to the Old Brand Mine.  Two men spent years digging out this mine to get coal and ended up dying from a lung disease from breathing the dust.  While we were hiking we were getting rained on, but we were determined to see the sure-to-be-super-cool mine.  That look of disappointment on Jason's face says it.  Then we got majorly rained on trying to get back.  We actually sought shelter finally at a restroom.  Fun times.

We got back to the campsite finally to discover that our 13 year old tent is no longer waterproof.  We think Assateague did it in last year, but we didn't find this out until this rainy campout.  Thankfully it was just the two of us and the toots stuff wasn't all piled around the corners of the tent like usual b/c it would have all been soaked.  Instead, we were able to put the air mattress in the Element and use it for our "tent."  If the girls had been there we wouldn't have all been able to fit.  So we finally used the Element to camp which we'd been wanting to do since we bought it 10 years ago.  And we are some super yummy hobo packets.

We did the Parkquests at Deep Creek and Herrington Manor while we were out there.  Herrington Manor is a really fun place with lots to do.  I do want to take the girls back sometime!

We also hiked down to Swallow Falls to see the waterfalls.  We had Tinkerbell with us so we couldn't go in the actually State Park.  But the lady at the guard station told us we could go down the road and hike in on the other side with her so we did.  The river was really high and dirty from the rain.  But the falls were pretty impressive.

 

Does it look like I fell in?  That's what I was going for.  :)