Clifton, VA

We had a short exploration of Clifton the other day. Clifton is the first of three towns in Fairfax County, VA. Almost every building on main street was built before 1900. Each had it's own uniqueness, and were all on the National Registry of Historic places.




Our other purpose for going there was to find another little coffee shop which I spotted on-line. I'm happy we stopped there, as the coffee was pretty tasty and the crepes, both savory and sweet, were too!

Camping Trip - PWFP

We decided to take an impromptu camping trip in October with P&M down at Prince William Forest Park. This was a short notice trip, so we decided to stick close to home, and this park fits the bill, being only about 10 miles away.
We had never visited the park before, but had heard from several people that it was a good location to go hiking, and bring the dog.
Early on Friday, Liesl started a pot of Chili to take with us, and set it on low on the stove before heading out to reserve us a camp site, as we were not sure just how busy the camp grounds were going to be. With this campground only about 10 miles away it shouldn't have taken that long to get down and back. However, it was FRIDAY. It took her almost 90 minutes just to get there.
By the time she got one of our little tents set up to reserve the site, I had decided that I needed to get off work early. So I told my boss she was trying to burn the house down, by leaving the stove on, and headed home. The chili was a little burned, but still edible.
Liesl returned not too long after got back, and we scrambled a bit to get the car loaded. We knew it was gonna take a while to get back down there, and set up, and it was probably going to be dark. Peter and Marissa had a much further drive, so we wanted to get things set up before they got there.
Needless to say, it was well dark by the time we got there to set up the camp. To boot, we had just bought a new tent, and for anyone who has done it before, you know it's always fun to set up a new tent in the dark. (We bought this big dome tent from Dick's, which gave us a lot more room than I am used to in a tent, but as we are not having to lug it around on our backs, I'm willing to go with it)
The tent went up with a little help from Mr. Headlight, and I was starting to rub sticks together to get some flames when P&M pulled in. While they set about erecting their tent and getting all the gear situated, I huffed and puffed on some twigs till i got some smoke. I don't really recall how I got the first licks of flame out of that wood (lack of oxygen to the brain) but we finally had some small success, which we quickly turned into our s'mores oven.

Saturday morning rolled around and we made short work of breakfast before heading out on a nice little hike. The trails were nice, the temp was cool, and the cold had put most of the bugs down. Overall, it made for a great day for a hike.



As I am writing this all from memory, I cannot recall everything that occurred Saturday, but I know it was pretty laid back and enjoyable.
That evening, we had a chat with one of our neighboring campers, who had come to introduce himself. It should have been a sign that they were going to be irritating. I still don't understand why people go to the woods to get inebriated and listen to their radios. By the following morning, we had gotten fed up and sometime in the night the Park ranger’s office was called to come take care of them.

I had gotten up early, per my usual camping routine, to get the fire stoked and some well earned coffee going. Liesl, P&M all joined me shortly thereafter, and we had some entertainment while cleaning up our site. The evening before, an older couple had come in with an RV, somehow managing to back into the campsite next to ours. Unfortunately, the entrance faced the wrong way for a graceful exit, and they ended up taking out the marker post. No real damage, just pushed it back into place, and headed out. The park rangers finally responded to the call from the night before as well. It was probably a good thing. The neighbor’s camp was trashed with beer bottles everywhere. Between that and the extra tent and extra truck on the site, I'm thinking they ended up getting fined.

We ended the camping trip with a quick drive through the other sites, to see if there were any more remote from the others for future use.

I can see clearly now...

New windows!


Finally got rid of the old and worn out windows. The old ones were so fogged up you could hardly see out them.
Hopefully these ones will help block out some of the heat and noise as well. Since we used the same company as we did with the back door, I think we are getting a quality window, and it should make a large difference.

Day 1:Flights

Liesl and I, and a couple of friends, Peter and Marissa, headed down on the 6th of September. Liesl has been certified since '02 making her the experienced one. I finished my classes in August, while Peter and Marissa took their course while on the trip. Our first day of vacation was quite eventful. We were originally supposed to meet P&M at the Miami airport for the flight to Curacao, but we got delayed and ended up catching the later flight. It worked out in the end as I had left my sunglasses sitting on top of my car in the long term parking lot, Liesl had left her hair clip in the car as well, so we were able to retrieve these before leaving (bright side to everything).When we got to Curacao P&M were waiting along with Ashley, a cousin of Liesl's whom she had never met, but hooked up with through facebook about a month before. Interestingly enough she and her husband just moved to Curacao! Small world. Everyone hit it off famously, and it really added to the trip. Since we had gotten in so late, we wanted nothing more than to eat food and hit the sack. Ashley showed us the way to the Hilton so we could check in, then took us around to Hook's Hut which was nearby, but couldn't be walked to. If you haven't been there, Hook's has a great atmosphere, they were playing some nice mellow jazz, while we sat by the ocean eating dinner. Shortly after eating we headed back to the hotel for sleep.

Day 2:Land Lubbers

The next morning, Liesl and I woke early, and headed to the beach for an early morning swim. I am always surprised by the buoyancy that salt water provides. I was able to just lay flat out and relax! On our way back to the hotel, we noticed some fish near the shoreline hanging out and decided the snorkel gear was coming out with us next time. Around 7:30ish we were back in the room getting ready for the day.

We met with P&M and headed for breakfast downstairs. The buffet was ok but not really worth the $20 charge. Didn't bother us however as part of our package was some hotel cash. After breakfast we met with Ashley and headed out for some of the island attractions. Hato caves being the first stop.The caves were pretty interesting and we took several photos inside.and out. There are some old carvings outside the caves along the Lizard trail, which I could not make out very well. We were there for a couple hours in all. Following the caves we needed to pick up some food form the supermarket. Ashley took us to a couple of spots she thought were safe to buy food from. Apparently they are not as strict about food quality on the island. Once we had put everything in the fridge at the hotel, we decided to take a quick snorkel at the hotel beach (next to Piscaderabaai).Peter and I hit the water first and were rewarded when we spotted an octopus maybe 50 feet from the entry! So cool! Unfortunately it stayed hidden when the ladies came in, s they missed out. There was a lot of life nearby however so we got in a good swim by the rocks and then headed across to the pier. There was a lot of sponge growth and christmas tree worms, trunk fish and several unknowns.Fort Nassau was our next stop. Fort Nassau sits on top of a hill overlooking the area. It was very picturesque as long as you didn't look down the hill at the metal scrap yard next to the bay. Shortly after, we went to Riffort, which has been converted to a shopping area in the Otrobanda area. We were looking for a good cup of coffee, but the place was closed (more to come on that later). Since it wasn't open we took a walk out across the Queen Emma floating bridge which stretches between Otrabonda and Punda. The whole area is set up for the cruise ship arrivals. whoopdidoo. Not my cup of tea, but still fun to visit. The most interesting part, was on the way back, getting stuck on the bridge as it swung open to allow a cargo ship access to the harbor.We finished up the day with a stop at La Granja. It was a smallish restaurant, kinda out of the way, but with pretty decent food at a good price. You just can't find great places to eat without a local guide :) (Much appreciation to Steve and Ashley, again)

Day 3:Piersbaai

Our first day slated for diving! We got picked up a little before 9 by Mark and Carl from The Dive Bus, and drove back the the dive shop. From there Peter and Marissa were heading into their first day of water classes, having finished the online bookwork. Liesl and I were taking two shore dives at Pierbaai from the shop. Turns out they had just moved The dive bus shop across the street from the water, so it was a bit of a hike to the shore from there in the heat. Both of the dives were essentially the same dive and we never actually got down to Car pile as it sits at 100-120ft, however we did get to an area covered in old metal girders. We saw a couple of large Spotted Morays and a large tarapin lurking around, and some large trumpet fish. There was a pretty cook looking set of brain coral One was blue, and the other whiteish, growing next to each other, making it look like the two halves of a brain. There were also some spotted drum, and a large sized trunk fish that swam by.During our Surface interval, there was a huge thunder and lightning storm, and large size downpour. The locals scattered like cockroaches in light. Liesl and I thought it was quite pleasant compared to the 100 degree heat from earlier.

Day 4:Vaersenbaai

another 9am morning, and another pick up. While P&M went back to the shop to try to finish up their training, Liesl and I were driven out to Vaersenbaai by Kevin. Good thing too, as I would have had issues finding the place. On the drive out we spotted some Flamingos, and Liesl jumped out to take some piccies. Then off down a muddy stretch that had flooded from the rains. We made it to Vaersenbaai and barely squeezed the van through the archway. We found that the old shop that had been there was destroyed during a past storm and they were rebuilding. Our first dive that day was to the left. Most of the diving in Curacao is in bays, one to the left on to the right. I felt a lot better in the water today than yesterday, but still managed to suck down my air pretty fast. even so, we got to see a Lion Fish in about 50 ft of water, some pederson shrimp, and a school of creole wrasse that seemed to just keep swimming by. The only bad thing on this site was the entry. The waves were a bit choppy and there was about a 50yd surface swim to the drop. Kevin said that it was the first time he had experienced that in this location though. The second dive was off to the right and yet another very cool experience. We spotted a very large lobster hanging out in a rock shelf, and some very nice coral and sponge growth. Around the turn around, Kevin gave us a sign to look behind us, and there were about 10 barracuda swimming around a few yards away. Some rainbow runners came swooping by a few seconds later. The Barracuda shadowed us for a while. Then Kevin pointed out what we had hoped to see, a Frog Fish! It's a very unique creature to be sure.For some reason on this dive I was really downing the air supply, and ended up surfacing with less than 200 psi. (I really need to work on my breathing control)

Day 5:Tugboat
Peter and Marissa had a couple more skills to do to complete their training, so we all headed out to Tugboat (Near Caracasbaai) with Mark leading us. We were doing two dives at this site. One to the tugboat, and a second under the pier. We stopped at about 15' to get P&M finished with their skills and all qualified up for their cert (woohoo!!!), then headed down reef.We spotted several of the usual suspects, parrot fish, peacock flounders, squirrel fish, etc. There were a few standouts however. We spotted a hogfish, a couple of lobster that mark thought might taste good, and some squid. I also spotted a small black eel on the way out, he was moving fairly fast though.Peter ended up sitting out the last dive. He had been struggling with his ears the whole trip and didn't want to push himself any further. On our way out we noticed a pink marker that is used to mark where divers spot Lion fish. They are considered an invasive species in the area and have been hunted pretty extensively over the last couple of years. The marker showed us to a small black Lion fish. They are pretty neat looking creatures. We also spotted a file fish, some jaw fish, eels, scorpion fish and just before our turn around we spotted the mother of all Coronette fish! well over 4ft' long! That sucker was big! Mark later stated he had not seen one that size in a very long time, so bonus for us. On our way back we ducked under the pier area. There was a large ship docked there and Mark got the wise idea of writing 'Clean Me' on the side...cute. It was surprising the amount of color that was under the pier. All the corals and sponge were reds and yellows and oranges. I spotted a small caterpillar looking thing, which Liesl just told me were Fire worms. just before the exit, Mark and Marissa got excited and kept pointing at this rock and sponge area. I stared for a while and all I saw was another rather smallish trumpet fish. I was later told that I missed out on a large puffer! We ended that day with another great meal at a thai/indonesian restaurant called Sawasdee. And tried to do a night snorkel, but the water was rough, then the rain and lightning kicked in, so we called it quits.

Day6:Coffee and Crepes

Went back to the coffee shop for breakfast, and it was as good as Ashley said it would be! We followed up a great cup of coffee with some crepes from just up the walk at Riffort.

Needless to say, we had a blast! We saw several interesting creatures both on land and in the water. We had an experience that will probably be remembered for a long time to come, and got to share it all with friends and family. The only way it could have been better would be to have more folks with us. Maybe next time.