So, Jonathan had a business trip to Boston this week. And he will be there a full workweek when all is said and done. He will get back Friday evening and we leave Saturday morning.
Today, the kids and I made our way to Theodore Roosevelt island, a 90 acre island and memorial in the middle of the Potomac river.
Teddy Roosevelt was an avid outdoorsman and was responsible for the designation of huge areas of land as national parks. So, it seems fitting that he has a wilderness-ish island as his memorial.
His love for the outdoors was influenced in part by his early fascination with birds. Of course, our little bird nerd loves that fact about him.
We arrived, set up the stroller, put on bug spray (I only had enough bug spray for the kids and exactly one of my arms… not ideal… as Washington D.C. is basically mosquito heaven) and we walked across the pedestrian bridge to get to the island.
I had previously done some research, and had decided that a nice walk on one of the nature trails would be perfect. Here is the description from the National Park Service page:
“Swamp Trail
At 1 ½ miles, this loop trail is the island’s longest. It passes through swampy woods and cattail marsh. The trail is part pea gravel and part boardwalk.”
I had downloaded the trail on my AllTrails app, and set it up to follow our progress, as I always (try to) do. Just in case. (Yes, this is all foreshadowing)
We started walking. And after we had only gone a short way, we came across a turtle! And he was a good sized fella. His shell was probably 12+ inches across.
That was a fun find. We also got to walk on a huge fallen tree. Also fun.
Then, there was a fallen tree across the path.
It’s fine, it probably just fell because of a recent thunderstorm and they haven’t had a chance to clear it. Jill hauls stroller over fallen tree.
At some point, I noticed that the foliage was starting to get a little thicker than you would normally expect on an established trail. But whatever, we’re adventurers. We can handle this.
We keep walking.
Wow. This foliage is REALLY getting thick. It’s fine. It’ll probably clear out soon. This is fine. I’m fine. Everything’s fine.
Oh wow. Another fallen tree. Ok…. that’s weird.
Ok. We’re seriously bushwhacking at this point. Jill pulls out phone.
Oh wow. We’re really not on the path that I had originally planned. But this path (it’s more of a deer trail) is documented on the app…
Ok, it meets up with the trail we’re supposed to be on. So we’ll be ok. It’s just this part that is crazy. I bet it will clear out, or stay about the same. (Optimist? Or seriously deluded? They sometimes look the same. )
OK. We are now underneath an overpass…. That’s cool. Wow. Pretty view of Virginia.
Ok, that was a nice break. Let’s keep going.
We walk for a minute.
At this point our deer trail basically turned into me pushing a stroller through the woods, with lots of roots and rocks. And yes, it was hot, sweaty work on a hot, muggy day. Thanks for asking.
(Also, praise to our stroller. It is amazing. A lesser stroller would not have been able to handle this, it would have folded itself up in terror and refused to go on.)
Oh wow. That is another fallen tree. And another. What is happening? I start swearing in head.
Walking. Walking. Children screaming.
Jill rushes ahead as fast as can.
The children have stumbled into an enormous swarm of mosquitos next to a small stream.
Thank goodness I put bug spray on them.
Crap. I only have one of my arms bug sprayed…. I am basically a mosquito buffet.
Tell children to run as fast as can.
Shove stroller as fast as can.
Isaac frozen in mosquito swarm. But I am shoving stroller. And am defenseless against the swarming bloodsuckers.
Clara is hero, snatches Isaac away from danger.
Ok. We’re good. I can grammar again.
Wow. I didn’t think it was possible, but the foliage has actually gotten thicker than it has been up to this point. I may have started muttering my swears at this point…
We are supposedly close to the actual trail… we’ve got to just push through. And we are much too far along this path to go back. Plus. I’m not sure we’d survive the mosquito hordes if we went back.
Stroller is heavy even without children. Stroller is super annoying. I want to leave stroller by this fallen tree. But instead I will haul stroller over tree. Then another fallen tree. Where are all they all coming from?
It was at about this point that I had to stop and laugh my head off for a second. Because I just couldn’t believe how ridiculous this situation was. It was honestly just plain crazy.
Bushwhacking. Getting close!
Oh! Salvation!
Our “path” led under another overpass. To the real trail, to civilization. I nearly kissed the boardwalk.
That was honestly crazy. We took a second for a break and to put some sunscreen on. And we were all reminiscing about how crazy that whole bushwhacking episode was and Jonas said “I’m going to call that area ‘Stroller hell’
😂😂😂
You’re not wrong, kid.
Anyway. We walked along the boardwalk, and the views were just lovely. And I was suddenly very happy that I had the stroller. Because everyone was tired from our bushwhacking. 😂
Eventually we came to dirt part of the path. And while it wasn’t exactly smooth, what with all the roots and rocks and such, after bushwhacking I could handle this.
Eventually, we came to the top of the hill and there was the Teddy Roosevelt memorial. We took a few minutes to rest and have a snack.
And then we wandered around the memorial for a bit. Logan’s favorite part was that there were tadpoles in the fountain (it obviously hadn’t been run for a while and only had rainwater in it. He was delighted to have seen tadpoles in the wild, in person.
And since we had been through the wringer, we took the short way down the hill and back to our car. We hopped in the car and made our way home.
And that is how we got lost on a 90 acre island.
