After a busy couple of weeks, it was time to get out of town for a long weekend; I knew I was going to be busy up through August 5th, so it made perfect sense to me to pick the next weekend as a chance to escape. So, Charlie and I threw our bags in the car and went west. Well, as far as Lost River, West Virginia, at any rate.

It was nice to head back to the Guest House at Lost River again; I’d been there last summer with a good group of friends to hang out and play bridge, so I already knew what I was getting into. In short? Lots of swimming, hiking, eating, napping, and gorgeous scenery.

I remember last year thinking that it had literally been almost half a decade since I’d gone on a vacation that didn’t involve some sort of “event” (family get-together, convention, race, or the like) but was merely to be somewhere else and enjoy the change of scenery. It’s something I’m really enjoying adding back into my life, something I didn’t realize I was missing until I had it once again.

As for the trip itself, it was great. Everything was as beautiful as I remembered, the weather was perfect (about 10 to 15 degrees cooler than DC and no real humidity to speak of), and we met some really nice people at the Guest House who were really great, fun guys to talk to. We ended up swapping contact information at the end with some of the guys, and I hope we can all get together at some point and just grab dinner or hang out or such.

Really, the closest thing I can find to a downside over the entire trip was that I read two of the most disappointing books in quite some time while on the trip. Neither was bad, per se, but ones that did not live up to their potential in the slightest. Fortunately that wasn’t the case with the actual trip; I’d much rather have my disappointment in print form. (And I rediscovered the evilness of Puzzle Quest while on the trip after having finished off the second book. It was just a matter of time until that game pulled me back in. I think I’m getting near the end of it now, though.) And really, who cares about a bad book when you’ve got that sort of view awaiting you at the end of an hour’s hike?

I wish I was still out in West Virginia right now, to be honest, just relaxing and sitting by the pool, or enjoying the gorgeous scenery. Don’t get me wrong, it’s always nice to be back home after a trip, but I’m already looking forward to my next trip to Lost River. There’s something about its peaceful nature that makes me want to keep going back. I guess that says it all, really.