Date: 2014-04-18
From: Harpers Ferry

To: Arlington, VA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Laurel, who runs the Teahorse Hostel in Harpers Ferry, makes great waffles served with berries.   They alone are reason enough for staying at the Teahorse. I awoke early, as in 4:30 early, because someone was snoring in the bunk room. It wasn't bad snoring, but enough to irritate me. I had slept well until that point, and Laura told me the culprit, who was in the bunk below her, started snoring around 2:30. So I'm not complaining. Laura managed to fall back to sleep after the guy started snoring, and slept until 7:15 - shortly before waffle time at 7:30. I grabbed my backpack and left the bunk room for a comfy sofa and read an inspirational book with quotes from Abraham Joshua Heschel until about 6ish when another early riser came out and we started gabbing. Actually, he did most of the gabbing - about all the trails he's hiked, and yada, yada, yada. Nice guy, but I was in the mood for more Heschel, not the tales of a career hiker dude.One by one, residents of the hostel came out and grabbed coffee or juice and stared into their cups until Laurel came in around 7 to get breakfast going. Thanks for a truly wonderful, 5 star waffle breakfast Laurel! After breakfast, with some encouragement from Laurel, a couple young men played guitars together and were soon joined by Jim (from Lee, MA) who played base. The entertainment wrapped up around 9:15, and we were soon on our way to the ATC (Appalachian Trail Conservancy). The ATC headquarters is in Harpers Ferry and thru-hikers usually stop to get their pictures taken in front of the ATC sign out front. Though we're technically not thru-hikers, we are better than half-thru-hikers, so I figured we qualified, and we had our picture taken and signed the log. It's a small world: the woman who took our photo was Laurie Peale (last name now different by marriage) who was in my 7th and 8th grade classes at Williamsburg Jr. High in Arlington, VA.After visiting the ATC, we toodled around the historic part of Harpers Ferry and then headed over to catch the Amtrak train to Washington where Kathryn and my mom picked us up. We got to Union Station before they did, and Laura and I loaded up on vegetables at a good salad bar in the station. We had a relaxing afternoon, including a nice Good Friday service with mom and Kathryn around mom's dining room table. Saturday was spent on financial stuff, going to REI and visiting with family: cousin Ingrid and her husband David and Laura's sister Doreen and her husband David. We enjoyed seeing Doreen and David's Alexandria home - built in 1770 - for the first time, and we had a great Italian dinner at Landini Brothers.We slept in on Easter Sunday, and went to 11 o'clock services at Holy Trinity in Georgetown. We went to Doreen and David's for an early dinner (salmon, brussel sprouts and sweet potatoes.) Upon returning to Mom's condo after dinner, Laura and I sorted through all the food we had bought and put together a drop box, our bounce box and a box of things to return to CA. It was then that I discovered that my right hiking boot was about trashed. (See photo in the photo journal.) There wasn't much I could do about it at that point, but I was able to contact the shuttle service that was going to pick us up in Atlanta at the North Springs MARTA station and get them to pick us up at the REI which was a mile south and easy walking distance from the previous MARTA station.