I can’t seem to write a real blog post about all the things I want to tell since I have been on the east coast, three days already. I thought my tablet device would work for this, but it doesn’t really…so tedious. If I had brought my laptop I could have done much more — but maybe not, as I have been busy morning till night, either having other kinds of fun than writing, or catching up on my sleep. Before you know it I’ll be home and I’ll type out more details.

I’m staying with Kate and Tom in Washington D.C., but today we drove south to Virginia, among the Blue Ridge Mountains and along Skyline Drive, where there are 75 overlooks of the Shenandoah Valley and the wavy tree and hill textures in gold, orange and pink, with varying amounts of gray and white.

Even here I was pleased to be reminded of home, when I read, “Shenandoah National Park was established in 1935 to bring the western national park experience to the urban east.” I did not expect this topography to resemble that of the western U.S., and what I enjoy so much are these hardwood forests blanketing the folds of the mountains. You know what else that makes me happy about that place? It keeps the lovely word strumming in my mind: Shenandoah.