We have begun a long summer road trip that starts along the east coast.

Our first stop was to Maryland to see Holden. We picked him up just after his work on Friday afternoon and then drove a little more than an hour out of town back to Harpers Ferry. This is our third time staying in this small but picturesque town – it offers a great combination of outdoor hikes, tours and food.

We are having perfect weather this weekend – up here in the mountains it is cool at night, warming up only to the mid-70s by the late afternoon.

The house we rented for the weekend – this is the same place we stayed last July

Heading into HF state park.

Jefferson rock and the view back into town with the Potomac river in the distance.

HF has a general store where people doing the Appalachian Trail can stop to get supplies. The place is always full of young, grubby backpackers.

Winston waiting for folks to come out of the one of the stores.

After lunch we drove to nearby Frederick, MD to do some shopping. This was a place Holden didn’t want to miss – where they make all sorts of custom Balsamic Vinegar blends for cooking. He’s become quite interested in cooking and baking and is getting good. We were the beneficiaries of some of his practice work on this trip.

After that we toured Rose Hill Manor – built in the 1790 and home of Maryland’s first governor and member of the Continental Congress, Thomas Johnson.

They had an excellent collection of carriages from the 1800’s – all sorts of styles and sizes.

By late afternoon we came back home and did our ‘wine time’ with leftovers from lunch plus breads, meats and cheeses that Brenda and I bought at the store earlier that morning.
We have one more day to play here before we need to take Holden back to his apartment and we continue our trek westward.