Harpers Ferry

We left our cozy treehouse Tuesday morning and decided to check out Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, which was just a few miles away. The fall colors in this quaint little historic town were amazing. We were so glad we were able to drive around the countryside and enjoy the colors at their peak. As much as we have enjoyed doing the Skyline Drive through Shenandoah in the past, it was nice to go somewhere without all the crowds.

The view near our treehouse:


The road leading up to the campground:


Harpers Ferry (built on a hill so it was a fun workout for my 9-months pregnant self):



















We walked down to the river just as this train came by:

Treehouse Camping

We decided to take advantage of Amelia being out of school on Monday and Tuesday and went camping at the Maple Tree Campground in Maryland, about 1 1/2 hours away. We had tried to go here back in February, but then this happened and we had to cancel. They have a bunch of different "treehouses" you can stay in. They are rustic, but have beds and a woodburning stove which was good since it ended up being pretty chilly while we were there.

I definitely got my leaf fix in. The colors were amazing. We enjoyed roasting s'mores around the campfire and playing games inside the treehouse after dark. Amelia was completely in awe of all the stars at night. It was nice to get out and enjoy Fall. We all slept comfortably but it was pretty cold outside of our sleeping bags in the morning. Ben was kind enough to make us all hot chocolate to coax us out of bed.

We came across some Civil War historical site on our way to the campground:








Our treehouse:




Elsa called it a fairy house after Amelia pointed out the perfect fairy tree outside the door. Amelia spent her time gathering food (acorns) for the fairies. I picked up her jeans that night and countless acorns came pouring out of the pockets onto the cabin floor. We were all stepping on acorns the rest of the night.

Halloween at the White House

Amelia's school was invited to go trick-or-treating at the White House this year. They invited a few different schools in the area to go. We were able to get tickets for the whole family. It was fun but would have been much better if Obama had been there to hand out the candy. We were one of the later groups to go through and just before we made it to the "front porch," Obama went back inside. There were several layers of security to get through (after having background checks done in advance) just to walk past the front of the house. Instead of Obama, Amelia and Elsa received candy from some Wizard of Oz characters. There were tons of White House interns roaming around dressed in elaborate costumes. One of the teachers at Amelia's school came dressed as famed White House party crasher Michaele Salahi.

Elsa loved riding the school bus:


Waiting in line:



Getting closer:






Amelia with her golden ticket (and a completely smeared spider on her face):


Angry gnome:




Finally made it through the last security checkpoint:




Getting the goodie bags:
















Amelia with her goodie bag, which contained a sugar cookie made by the White House pastry chef, dried fruit & nuts, and the famous presidential m&m's.

Restoring Sanity and/or Fear

On Saturday we decided to head downtown and check out the Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. We were happy with our decision to drive instead of taking the metro. Apparently it was total madness on the metro and we had no problems driving into and out of the city.

We approached the Mall from the side and ended up in a crowd of people moving forward. We just went along with the crowd, hoping to get close enough to hear or see something. Pretty soon we were completely trapped and couldn't move forward or backward. It was a little crazy, but people were generally patient and it was entertaining to read all the funny signs. We inched forward for about 30 minutes and finally made it to the next street corner and were able to sneak out of the crowd and take refuge in the Sculpture Garden at the National Gallery of Art. We made our way to the back of the crowd on the Mall to get an overall picture of things, although we still couldn't hear or see much. It was amazing how many people showed up. And amazing that Amelia never asked what we were doing with all those people. Which might have been difficult to explain.

We managed to squeeze in some shopping at H&M and Zara and some lunch at Potbelly while we were downtown. And then we all crashed when we got home.




















The above picture is deceptive. It doesn't look like that many people, but really it looked like this:

(We were trapped on the side street on the left.)