What a week! From Washington to the Westlake Rec!

Taking my bike with me to Washington DC was an absolutely brilliant idea! In the evenings, after my class, I climbed onto my bike and traversed Washington DC from Licoln to the Capitol!! I could cover most of the major sites in Washington within 2 hours on a bike, whereas it would take me two days if I chose to do the same on foot! I even made it to a number of monuments/places that I had not previously seen up close before, such as the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, and the State Capitol. Another highlight of my DC trip was finding and dining at a Nando's Restaurant. Nando's is Liesel and my favorite fast food chain in South African and they specialize in Portuguese Chicken dishes with varying amounts of Peri-Peri spices! To be honest - it was not as good as the original, but it was good enough to revive my peri-peri - deprived taste buds! And, it was a welcome alternative to American Fast Food!

I left the capital city on Friday morning, and I had a fantastic, event-free drive back home to Cleveland. 6 hours later I pulled into my driveway and was re-united with my family! One of my first duties to fulfill, was to take Nathan to Toys R Us to pick out a prize for being such a good boy while I was away!

On Saturday, it was back to the regular grind, with Liesel and myself working around the house. Nathan and I managed to escape to go and watch the Annual Duct Tape Parade through the streets of Avon. Nathan, now a parade veteran, remembered to take his ear muffs along with him, as those sirens and horns do get loud!!

It was also Family Fun Night, and we all enjoyed watching Bedtime Stories, courtesy of the Westlake Porter Public Library!


Today, was Father's Day and it was a wonderful day, in all respects! It started out with delicious Chocolate Croissants hot out of the oven, for breakfast!! Since I had been away all week, we wanted to spend the entire day together, so we gave church a skip.... and headed to the Westlake Recreation Center for a leisurely bike ride for Nathan and myself, while Liesel followed with Josh in the stroller. They then left at noon for Josh's nap-time, while Nathan played in the playground.
Twenty minutes later, we headed home for lunch, and then we relaxed indoors, and I even managed to catch the elusive Sunday afternoon nap! Later that afternoon, Liesel took her boy's (me included) to Mitchell's Ice Cream and treated us to the ice cream of our choice! Nothing better than a Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream on a hot summer's day :)

That evening, we had our friends over, Ron and Tammy, to share in Liesel's masterpiece meal that was made in honor of Father's Day! We had roast chick, roast lamb, roast potatoes and delicious bread!! Then for dessert, Liesel found a recipe that combined cookie dough, with chocolate brownies! Need I say more??? This was slowly savored sitting outside on our patio as the sun bid us farewell, on the longest day of the year! Ah, what a beautiful day it was! And, what a beautiful family to share this special day with! Thank you Liesel, Nathan and Josh!!!!