The Great Outdoors

I had a great weekend outdoors.

A couple of my friends are leaving in two weeks to travel the world for seven months — ending with a move to California. So to celebrate their last weeks on the East Coast, they invited a bunch of friends to a cabin in Shenandoah National Park. We spent the weekend playing games, grilling, canoeing on the river and finishing a keg. And the weather cooperated pretty well, too.

When I got back to D.C. on Sunday, the weather was excellent still. So I spent a couple of hours at Meridian Hill Park. A drum circle plays there almost every Sunday, so I checked that out. The drumming had drawn quite a crowd, including dancers, jugglers, a yoga class (well, maybe they weren't drawn by the drumming) and plenty of people just hanging out. I watched for a while, then took my blanket to one of the hills and read for a bit with some drumming in the background.