Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Winter retreat

We had a long weekend recently, and I used it as an excuse to schedule one of my weekend getaways. These are pretty easy to organize now - I just look for an Airbnb within driving distance of the city. They need to have a kitchen and accept dogs, and then I'm all set.  It doesn't really matter where I go, because there are always parks nearby far hiking. And since too many restaurants are a disappointment, I self-catered the trip. I've realized that I'm really just paying for the excuse to ignore all my household chores.

At the last minute, I learned that Shenandoah National Park was closed due to a recent storm.  I found a state park with a long trail following a river, which make it beautiful in spite of the lack of green and warmth. The dog had a great time as well. She does not understand the purpose stepping stones, and we had to ford of number of tributaries, but swimming in near-freezing water didn't seem to faze her.

I spent half my time reading and half my time reflecting. I've done enough retreats now that I'm just doing tune-ups, checking on whether I'm still living my life the way I want to. The rest of the time I can spend enjoying my Victorian detective fiction and whiskey.

4 comments:

de-I said...

If all you need is need an excuse to not do chores, I am glad to accept your money and provide you with a formal, four color, pdf Excuse from Chores Certificate for whatever weekend you want. I am sure I can come up with a price that is less than the cost of the Airbnb.

alexis said...

I still love that you do these retreats. I think it's something we should all do although I would probably benefit from having a more structured fashion of doing it, rather than spending most of my time thinking about how I should do it.

Gill - UK said...

I didn't know you had a taste for Victorian detective fiction (Sherlock Holmes?) and whiskey.

Tim said...

On one of these adventures you need to hit the Apple House (4675 John Marshall Hwy, Linden, VA 22642). Make sure it's first thing in the morning when they open for their homemade apple donuts!

-Tim