Touring Occoquan!

We've had a few days of rain, and will have two more after today, but today was mostly sunny, so I took the opportunity to go to Occoquan and walk around and take some pictures. This will be a post full of photos of Occoquan because of that.

I parked in front of the park, where this cute little gazebo resides. Here's a closer view of the weathervane on top.

Here's a view of two of the shops near the end of the street.

And a close up of the one on the right.

The names of some of the shops and some of the signs that hang outside them are wonderful!

Here's some of the ornate ironwork and other decoration down at that end of the street.

One of the shops had a garden gnome in the window.

Working our way back down the street, here's one of the restaurants.

And the entrance to one of the shops is made to look like a lighthouse.

Nautical things are a favorite theme because the town of Occoquan is right on the Occoquan River. It's pretty small at this point, but gets to be more like a river down further.

The sky was unbelievable today. Full of clouds of all descriptions, many looking like storm clouds!

There's a restaurant that opens to the main street of the town, but also has places where you can dock your boat and dine.

Next to it, is the closest thing that Occoquan has to a strip mall.

The turret on the corner of the "mall" is quite photogenic all by itself, too.

And out in the middle of the river, there's a tiny island.

In the middle of town, there's a courtyard that has another gazebo in it.

They've had a recent building boom and put up some townhouses that are very interesting. Here's a balcony on one of them. You can see a bit of the turret on one of them on the right, too.

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I hope you got a chance to see The Event last week and last night! It starts out like it's going to be a good, but standard action adventure movie with a terrorist plot to kill the president, and seconds before the terrorists are about to succeed, it takes an abrupt left turn into science fiction! What would be really good is suddenly fabulous! They'll be rerunning this week's episode on Saturday or Sunday, so you can catch that, at least. Check your TV guides!

Stargate Universe has been having a marathon on the Syfy channel all day today, and will show the season premier tonight! Don't miss it!

No Ordinary Family is premiering as I write this. I'm sorry, I didn't realize it was so late!

I have to get going so I can watch all this!

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Tomorrow, I'll be spending the whole day at the VA Hospital in DC, getting my ears checked, and, if I'm lucky, maybe they'll be able to adjust the right one and get that working so I can hear something in that ear. If I'm really lucky, they might be able to fix the left one!

So, you probably won't hear anything from me tommorrow!

In the meantime, have fun!

Occoquan

Holly and I went to Occoquan today, walked around a bit and had a great time.

Here's what the River looked like today:

Occoquan is kind of like going on a long vacation trip, but it's right around the corner.

Well, if you have a car. It's probably over a mile from the bus stop, almost all severely downhill on the way there, and mountain climbing on the way back if you walk.

Here is the new construction that's been going on.

Yes, you, too, can have your own townhouse on the waterfront with your own private boat slip. These particular ones are not right on the water, but there are ones behind them and ones being built that are, and do have their own docking privileges.

We walked around a beautiful small town and in and out of small boutiques and just generally enjoyed the place.

We stopped at a restaurant that is supposed to be haunted by an indian who died on the site (before the restaurant was built, I think).

We were seated in front of this mirror:

Holly looked at it and said, "Yeah, this looks like the right place for us." Holly's last name is LaHart, and she collects heart jewelry, and my symbol is stars.

The menu was fabulous! We each found four or five things that we really wanted. I ordered from the small appetite menu, and got what would have been a generous portion anywhere else. Holly ordered the chicken and biscuits and got enough to feed a third world nation!

Unfortunately, Holly wasn't feeling well, and wanted to get home, so we ended kind of quickly.

It was really fun, though.

Eclipse on my Birthday!

Don't forget the eclipse tonight!

The full eclipse will be seen pretty far North, and there may not be much to see in civilized latitudes, and might be completely invisible due to weather conditions, but it will be happening.

Well last night, I ripped out most of the top of the back on the Celtic sweater, and reknit it. So, at the end of last night, I was at the same spot I was the night before. One whole day down the drain.

All I really accomplished was changing the "frame" around the Saint John's cross.

But I'm almost at the bottom of the armholes, and I'll be joining the fronts to the back with some extra stitches invisibly cast on at the bottom of the armhole.

I have to go, now. Holly and I will be going to Occoquan today. It's a beautiful little town right near here with a lot of little specialty and art stores, right on the Occoquan River (which is about the size of the creek I grew up with).

Well, at least I hope it's still pretty. About two years ago, most of the waterfront properties were torn down, and they've built something there. I could see the destruction from the bridge, but I haven't been down there since. They've also expanded and raised the bridge at the one end of town, so I'm not sure how that's affected it all. I guess I'll find out today.

I'll tell you more tomorrow.

Have a great weekend!