End of summer excitement

How did it become September 1st already?

We've had a busy summer, including trips to Pittsburgh, Cape Cod, and Milwaukee (post coming on that sometime), and business trips for Daddy Geek to southern California and Japan.  Geek Girl continues to grow like a weed -- she's only about one centimeter shorter than Mama Geek -- and we discovered that 10-year-old girls use email like texting (ack).  Geek Girl has also been learning to ride her bike, and has taken a few 10+ mile rides with me, including her first group ride.  And she has read 84 books so far this summer (she just asked: "Do you think I can make it to 100?!")

Oh, yeah, and we moved houses within the same town.

But this post isn't about any of that.

Rather, we've had an interesting weekend already.  We decided to things off right with a family bike ride along the W&OD Trail, and it was going to be lunchtime while we were on the ride, so naturally the destination was Nielsen's Frozen Custard in Vienna.  We had been there for custard before, but we learned on this trip that they also make some pretty good sandwiches.  Mama Geek and I shared an Italian grinder, Geek Girl had a salami sandwich, and we shared a coffee custard and a "concrete" - vanilla custard with Oreos.  Yum.

On the way back home, Geek Girl had her first real bike accident.  I was right behind her and still don't know exactly what happened, but down she went and ended up with a pretty good scraped knee and elbow, and lesser cuts and assorted bruises.  A kind stranger offered us bandages and such, and we got her patched up for the ride home.  To her credit, Geek Girl toughed it out for another four miles to get home with only minimal complaints, and by the time we got home, she thanked us "for making me ride home, Daddy".

(Memo to Daddy Geek: remember to make a small bike first aid kit and bring it along for future rides, since grace seems to run in the Geek family...)

We'll spare you the wound pictures, but here's a picture of Geek Girl giving me the Pre-teen Death Glare after we got her cleaned up and the injuries properly dressed:

Geek Girl is displeased with being asked to model her bandages

Saturday was another beautiful day, so we walked over to the farmer's market for fruit and Geek Girl's post-accident breakfast treat:

Breakfast of Tough Geek Girls: freshly made mini doughnuts with sugar

The library is closed today and tomorrow, so a visit to drop off some books and pick up a few more was key as well.  Geek Girl's definition of "a few" leads to a stuffed backpack, and my back being 2" shorter than normal...but we wouldn't have it any other way.

Just for the heck of it, and to stretch out her arms and legs (we wouldn't want them to stiffen up after the injury, right?), Geek Girl and I went off to Sportrock Climbing in Alexandria to try some bouldering.  We traded back and forth and she did pretty well despite banging her knee into the wall a few times -- my grandfather's genes at work, I guess.  One unexpected treat: they had a slackline for folks to try, and Geek Girl made two round trips with me giving her a helping hand.  It seems Geek Girl had fun: she wants me to refresh my belay training so she can top-rope.

Today is yet another beautiful day, and less humid, so I indulged in a long solo ride on my race bike (thanks, Mama Geek!), through the northern Virginia suburbs, down into downtown DC -- this was perhaps unwise on Sunday of Labor Day weekend -- and up the W&OD trail home.  It was the longest ride I've done since before I injured my Achilles back in March, and it was great to get out for so long, but something tells me it's going to be easy to fall asleep tonight.

Our last bit of excitement will be this evening's block party -- finally a chance to meet our new neighbors.

Oh, and it appears Geek Girl is excited about school starting on Tuesday; she spontaneously wrote the following poem this morning:

School starts! It's
Exciting! Our classroom has a
Periodic
Table of the
Elements!
Ms. M is my teacher
Boxes of school supplies
Exciting colors on the floor in
Radial symmetrical patterns
(c)

(The copyright symbol is important, apparently.)

Have a Happy Labor Day Weekend, folks.

Rock Creek Ramble

Last Sunday was a beautiful crisp fall day, perfect for a late morning stroll through Rock Creek Park. Geek Girl was happy to find a stick for making dragon footprints -- have we mentioned she is no longer a tiger, but rather a dragon these days?


She walked ahead of us down the trails, which were blanketed with pretty fall leaves:


That meant Mama Geek and I enjoyed the relatively rare pleasure of holding each other's hands, rather than Geek Girl's hands, which made the hike extra nice for us.

We went up one of the side trails, and then linked up with a main trail alongside the creek itself. It certainly lives up to the name:


We also found a hollowed-out tree trunk alongside the trail -- watch out for wild dragons!


Geek Girl also was happy to meet several dogs and a horse along the way. She gathered many acorns for her nature collection, and "planted" a bunch as well. After an hour or so, we stopped for a snack along the creek and then headed back to the car and off to one of our favorite restaurants, A&J in Annandale (spicy wontons, potstickers, and soup dumplings - yum!), for lunch. All in all, a very nice Sunday outing.

Sunday Wandering

We've been a bit busy lately, so we haven't posted much recently. Time to catch up a bit.

The first week of November was very stressful for me, so when the following weekend came up, it was definitely time for some low-key relaxation. We spent a very pretty Sunday wandering around and stumbled across some (for us, anyway) unexpected treats.

First on the non-agenda: Geek Girl and I introduced Mama Geek to Theodore Roosevelt Island (not to be confused with that other Roosevelt Island to the north). There is a pretty 1.3-mile trail around the perimeter of the island, where a kind passer-by snapped this picture of The Geeks. Lots of nice fall foliage as you can see.

Part of the trail is along a boardwalk over a tidal wetland, where we saw lots of ducks and Geek Girl enjoyed looking for tiger tails among the cattails and reeds. Mama Geek took this picture of Geek Girl and me on the boardwalk:


After finishing the walk, we were ready for lunch and headed to Columbia Heights for pizza, followed by a meander around the neighborhood. It was an interesting mix of old and new buildings, including this brightly-colored house that caught our fancy:


Afterward, it was time to "go home", which of course means "stop for coffee and a snack", so off to Georgetown for a stop at Dolcezza, followed by a bit of hill-climbing to burn off the gelato. We stumbled upon the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, a very pretty old mansion at the top of the highest hill in Georgetown. It has a spectacular set of gardens that are free to wander in from November to March (they cost $8 the rest of the year), so wander we did.

First, Geek Girl practiced her tree-climbing skills:

(She notes: "I'm afraid of Daddy-longlegs - good thing there weren't any!")

Here's a shot of Geek Girl and Mama Geek being silly:


And a couple of garden shots for Grandma:



On the way back to the car, we uncovered a playground at Montrose Park, where Geek Girl played until we dragged her away to head home. Overall, we had a very nice day with no real plan.

Darn Good Pizza in Falls Church: Flippin' Pizza

After The Crisis-Laden Visit to the Zoo, we were all hungry and grumpy. Not a great combination, but in the end, we found a great way to fix it.

We decided to try a new pizza place in Falls Church, Flippin' Pizza. It's the local branch of a small chain of New York-style pizza places, and is located in the "Flower Building", the same new building on Route 7 (Broad Street) that now houses the Falls Church Post Office. The address is 800 W Broad St, Fall Church VA, 22046, open 11-10 Sun-Thu and 11-11 Fri/Sat. No delivery, but they do carry out. Dine-in, they have six four-person tables inside and two outside. Just in case you want to make a visit -- which we highly recommend after last night.

Mama Geek has certain standards that must be met by places selling allegedly New York-style pizza, the most important being a thin and crispy crust. She has been seriously disappointed in the pizza offerings we have tried so far in northern VA, all of which have had the wrong crust: too thick, too soggy, and/or too chewy. I also have tests for good pizza-by-the-slice: slices must be foldable along the long axis, must come from an 18" pie, and must have good, simple toppings.

Flippin' Pizza passes the Mama and Daddy Geek tests with flying colors -- it is darn good stuff! We each had a slice of Whitestone (ricotta, mozzarella, parmesan, fresh garlic, and a bit of basil) and a slice of Brooklyn (pepperoni, meatball, mushrooms, garlic, red sauce). I also tried a slice of their Triboro (pepperoni, meatball, sausage). They have herbs, pepper flakes, and cheese in shakers available by the drinks machine, and they earn my bonus points by having soda water available from the drinks machine, something I find far too rare at restaurants these days. They also have great music -- we walked in and they were playing "Spirit of Radio" by Rush, and followed it with lots of good mid-1980s stuff.

It also earns the Geek Girl Seal of Approval: she at a full cheese slice, raved over it, and then requested and ate a full second slice! That essentially never happens.

The capper: it's cheap. Seven slices of darn good pizza and three drinks ran us around $18. Oh, yes.

The restaurant is also just within walking distance with Geek Girl, but only just, so we won't be tempted to go back too often.

Even though we already did -- Geek Girl and I had lunch there today. Oh, dear.

In short, Flippin' Pizza is darn good stuff, on a par with Escape From New York Pizza in Portland, OR and Bronx Pizza in San Diego.

Highly recommended by The Geeks. Come visit us and we'll take you there.