Memorial Day Weekend

Very good overall.

Mt. Misery wasn't entirely a misnomer. I would grant that it might be a mount simply because it was mostly higher than the rest of the land around it. Amusingly it's across the way from Mt. Joy. Nice little geographic dichotomy they've got going on there.
Really it only followed the general idiom of Pennsylvania hiking trails, which is to be a complete bitch to hike up the first 15-20 minutes, then after that it mellows out in to mostly even grading with a lot of rocks. So...yes, the first 15-20 minutes was misery as we trudged up the steeper part of the trail. Following that it was more like a slight uphill mosey through the woods listening to birdsong and looking at the dappled sunlight on the forest floor. Highly enjoyable.
We explored a broken down building that covered a natural spring, crawling through the low ceilings and rubble. We stood by a stream and watched birds play in the trees and the water. There were purple wildflowers and a big ol' yellow swallowtail butterfly in the parking lot. And we saw chipmunks all over the place and one dear while we hiked.
It was so close that we opted to try and do something like that every weekend we could. Valley Forge really is a very pretty place. We discovered bike rentals while we were there and both agreed it would rock to come back and ride them around for additional exercise.
We had lunch out in the woods, leaving bread crumbs from our sandwiches for the critters.
We also went to see Indiana Jones. It was a fun movie, and funny. But there was something missing. The best I could figure was the absence of zeitgeist. It felt like a film without a soul, or a movie that was walking away from the audience as it went. It made me somewhat sad. It's as if the world is closing up behind me and all the things of youth are dissipating.
It was a good weekend. But one that reminded me constantly that I am not, in fact, young anymore. Not the way I was at 14 or 18 or even 24. The world belongs to others now who are just as curious and awkward, hopeful and lost as I was. I find myself envying them that mindset.
But enough waxing poetic. The world rolls on, and there were hotdogs and strawberry pie eaten outside while little kids hollered and played a combination of soccer and football. The cats explored in the sun and Bob and I shared a beer on the back porch while the warm breezes blew. It was just a lovely, lovely time.
We finished out Carnivale last night also. The parallels between my love of that show and Firefly still stand. It had a great storyline and so many different aspects in characters and sub-plots that could be brought back. I've been reading news sites and wikipedia to get more details. Rumors abound that they might bring it back in 2008, but I've heard this mantra before and all we got out of it was a feature film that finally made people realize it was a cool universe. Perhaps that little pittance would satisfy those few nagging bits of story left dangling.
We finished the weekend watching the first hour or so of Remo Williams. I'm enjoying my introduction to 80's cult flicks courtesy of Bob.