The Sights of Reston

I got home at a good-enough time to go hiking, but Phoenix was still in bed for about another hour. Instead of hiking, we spent the day resting. in the evening, we found Trader Joe's and got some groceries (and my magnetic personality attracted some strange old guy who thought I was an expert on cat food because I was wearing an American Humane Society member t-shirt), and then took a nice long walk. The last time we walked around the community, we went through a nearby park and some nice town homes. This time, we went in the other direction, where we knew there was a nature center. We did not get to the nature center building, but we did find their trail network. Along one of the chosen paths was a quartz vein. According to the information plaque, there are quite a few in the area. Both Phoenix and I wondered if that had something to do with why we liked it there so much. We also found that the trails lead right to the town home development that's adjacent to our condo complex. Easy access to trails! Huzzah!

Next time we walk that way, we're bringing cameras. I especially want some pictures of the huge boulders of quartz that are protruding from the ground. (Huge is relative, I've certainly seen bigger boulders, but I've never seen bigger chunks of quartz, not even at the Smithsonian.) We also made our way to one of the many lakes in the community by way of those trails. I hope we can go exploring back there again soon.

Tomorrow's plans to go hiking have changed. Han got in touch with me last minute to say the little group that went to King's Dominion last year would be going again tomorrow. While it meant cancelling plans with Phoenix, she was very encouraging about it. We'll get a chance to go hiking before her Idaho trip and break-in her new hiking boots later. Han is going to drive all the way out here to get me in the morning, so I better start packing up and get to bed!