I was determined to know beans

I love the folks in The G Unit. We managed to cobble together a quick study break trip to the Great Falls National Park and a whole bunch of people showed up! When you're so used to city living, you kind of forget how important it is to venture into the country every once in awhile. It's good fo r the soul to enjoy the natural world, you know? As Henry David Thoreau says, "On tops of mountains, as everywhere to hopeful souls, it is always morning."

Well, we didn't exactly make it up to the mountaintop today but we did enjoy a leisurely hike through the woods and an intense, physically demanding game of wiffle ball. Nothin' like wiffle ball to r efresh a tired mind and stir up a healthy competitive spirit. We played girls against boys -- the girls started strong but quickly fizzled. Summer was in charge of pitching and, I gotta admit, she struggled a bit. No, Summer, the ball is supposed to go OVER home plate, not 5 feet to the left! Of course, it didn't really help that all of our fielding skills piled together couldn't have filled Thumbalina's pinky nail. We even tried to cheat, attempting to infuse some tackling into the game but that didn't work so well either. In fact, the whole game was so ridiculously funny that we even had an audience -- the girls were being cheered on by other park guests, but luckily, the crowd dispersed before we started embarrassing ourselves (much like the Detroit Tigers ...)

I wonder what it is about nature that brings people together, even if they aren't outdoorsy types. Maybe there's just something about fresh air, beautiful scenery and a shared activity (e.g. hiking or wiffle ball) that encourages people to be more open with each other. I had a chance to bond with a few more Gang members today and if it hadn't been for this activity, I'm not sure we would have had much in common. Hopefully the weather will hold up a little while longer and we can do this again. Here are a few more photos of the park and the intrepid adventurers: