Susan Boyle

I'm just now getting around to watching Susan Boyle sing on Britain's Got Talent. She sang I Dream a Dream from Les Miserables and holy cow... it's beautiful. I thought it was so beautiful I kept rewinding the video and replaying her singing. (I'm still listening.) I must have listened to it at least 20 times. I already posted a link to the video on Facebook book but thought I'd post it here too:

http://talent.itv.com/videos/video/item_200081.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

Piney River Falls

Today I went on a hike in Shenandoah down to Piney River Falls. The trail head is just past mile 22 on the right going North. The in-and-out option is little less than 7 miles, but there is also a circuit option. It was a good hike to start the season off with since it was a pretty easy one with only about a 900 ft elevation gain. Plus, it doesn't seemed to be a hike that's well-known so it was relatively crowd free. The trail starts out with a gentle decent down into the valley with couple of easy river crossings (due to all the recent rain). The falls is quite easy to miss though since it's a bit away from the main trail. It might be especially hard to find once the trees are full of leaves. I enjoyed the falls a lot. I ate my lunch right in front of it with the above view.

Ekoji Buddhist Temple

Did you know there was a Buddhist temple in Northern Virginia? I had heard about the Ekoji Buddhist Temple last year, but only recently got around to checking it out. I thought it might be a good idea to learn more about the religion since I had been wanting to do the 88 Temple Pilgrimage for years now. I'm actually not a religious person at all though, and my motives for wanting to do the pilgrimage has more to do with enjoying Japanese food and beautiful hikes for days on end. Finding spirituality and reaching enlightenment is secondary. My mom on the otherhand, seems to take this pretty seriously. She has already completed one circuit (by bus) and has started another one this year (she will do it in 2 trips). I'm not anti-religion though, and I do tend to agree with Buddhist philosophies. Perhaps more meaning would be added to my pilgrimage if I made an effort to learn more about Buddhism. Hence, my interest in Ekoji.

Ekoji temple offers regular Sunday services, Thursday night meditations, taiko (drum) lessons, and various other events through out the year. Next week they will begin Buddhism 101 classes prior to service. This is what I am most interested in. I could use some peace and tranquility in my life so the meditation would be nice, but it conflicts with my BJJ/MMA training. I did check out their service, and it was a bit too church like for me so I doubt I will be a regular there. In any case, if you have any interest in Buddhism, it's worth checking out.

So when am I going to do this pilgrimage? Who knows.... I would actually like to do it the traditional way on foot, but that requires 6-8 weeks of time off of work. A drive through version is about 2 weeks. A hybrid of walking & cheating (hitching rides or rail for the longer stretches between temples) might be doable in about a month. This is what I am leaning towards but still requires a nice chunk of time off. If I could actually stop taking vacations maybe I'll be able to save up enough by next year....

Riverbend Park & Bluebells

Hiking in April is all about flowers. Although the cherry blossoms get all the rave around DC, there are plenty of other flowers to enjoy. For example, check out the trail between Great Falls Park and Riverbend Park. You'll find Virginia Bluebells everywhere - particularly near Riverbend. The trail between the two parks is pretty flat and only 1.5 miles each way so it's a leisurely stroll - all along the Potomac. If you don't have a park pass, it's $5 to park at Great Falls, but parking is free at Riverbend.

Cherry Blossom Festival

The cherry blossoms in the DC area are absolutely amazing. I went last year and enjoyed them very much. This year my brother and his kids came up to enjoy them with me. We were a bit unlucky tho that it was windy and really cold so we rushed around the tidal basin instead of taking our time to enjoy them. A lot of the blossoms also started falling already because of the wind, but we found a few that were full. After the tidal basin walk we checked out the cherry blossom parade for a bit. It was mostly high school bands with a few floats with commerical advertisements. Not exactly a Macy's parade. Next was a short stop in the White House visitor's center to warm up on the way to the Japanese Street Festival. Massive crowds at the festival prevented us from doing much of anything meaningful. I was hoping to immerse the kids more in the Japanese activities and cultural stuff so I was disappointed it didn't turn out that way. Instead we headed over to Chinatown for lunch.

There were just way too many people everywhere in DC during cherry blossom season :( My brother says he will never come up to DC again on a holiday or festival weekend. Not that I blame him. Still, it was really great having my family up here. Various friends of mine joined me through out the day also so it was actually a pretty good day for me.