How low can it go?

 

Actually, that's a question I'd rather not know the answer to. I'm still stinging from the disappointment of my sister having to cancel at the last minute her trip to visit us, due entirely to the three of us somehow managing to contract the coronavirus. She certainly did the prudent thing, and we are planning on driving across the country to her home this summer. Still, it would've been nice to have seen her again, especially as it's been more than two years, and the last time we were together was when I came back from Ethiopia to bury our father. 

So once again the coronavirus wiped out our holiday plans (this all inconveniently coincided with my daughter's spring break from school). I could wallow in this, and also mention how health issues in general have pushed me hopelessly behind my classmates in the Mandarin program, and of how things seem to be going from bad to worse in China, which could make a mess of our planned move, but I won't. After all, the weather is becoming increasingly nicer (天气越来越好), a seasonal change reflected in the varied foliage of the nearby cemetery, where the colors of death and rebirth are currently on display:

With Amber back to full health (she was actually the least obviously affected by COVID-19 - I felt like I had the flu, while Shu-E had all the symptoms of a nasty cold), she was able to join her bandmates at the local farmers market for a well-received Ukraine fundraiser. The band easily exceeded their $500 target for donations - take that you pro-Putin useful idiots!:

April 30, 1975 (my daughter thought 30-4-1975 was a phone number) was the day the Vietnam War ended with the fall of Saigon to the North Vietnamese army. Although I don't read Vietnamese, I have the sense the feeling being conveyed to the South Vietnamese community by the banner at Eden Center is one of sadness (the flag of the former Republic of Vietnam is being flown at half-mast):

On a more positive note (supposedly the overarching tone of this blog post) we attended the McLean Chocolate Festival, where we purchased a few of the specialties on offer:

Amber looking more and more comfortable behind the wheel, though the idea of driving on freeways still fills her with trepidation. In this regard, she's much like her mother, who still is leery of getting on American Interstates because the speeds tend to be much faster than on the national highways in her native Taiwan. The presence of highway patrols also unnerves her:

It seems the local wildlife is starting to reemerge with the onset of spring. In the past few days I've seen rabbits, foxes and snakes while walking around our area. And this scrawny-looking dear, which actually approached me while I was taking my usual morning stroll in the cemetery. I wonder if someone has been feeding it...:

The mural on the wall of a local music store:

A woodpecker hard at work doing whatever it is a woodpecker does:

You may have noticed the photo of some waterfalls at the beginning of this post. The wife had never been to West Virginia (actually she had - we spent a night once at a hotel just inside the Ohio/West Virginia state line when we drove across the U.S. during the summer of 2015), so Shu-E decided a trip there was in order. After doing some research online, she decided we should spend a night at Blackwater Falls State Park, then stop off in Harpers Ferry on our way back to Washington.

The West Virginia countryside is nice to experience; the West Virginia culture not so much. We stopped for lunch at a McDonald's in Moorefield, a town of 2500 just off U.S. Route 48. The dining room was filled with plus-sized white people, many dressed in camo, and one gentleman afflicted with a smaller-than-average penis was carrying a handgun. Judging from all the elderly workers in the restaurant, I would guess many of the young of Moorefield don't stick around after finishing school. Either that, or they're so strung out on meth that their grandparents have to keep working.

Soon after getting back on the road we saw our first Confederate flag (strange, considering West Virginia's origins). And when we reached the state park, these were for sale in the gift shop:

The main draw of the park is of course the falls, which cascade 62 feet (19 meters) at the point where the Blackwater River enters Blackwater Canyon:

The falls are nice, but not spectacular, but seeing as we drove 2½ hours-plus from Falls Church to get there, a lot of photos were taken:

No exaggeration - until we reached Harpers Ferry the following day, during the whole time we were in West Virginia we were the only people wearing masks:

From the falls we drove toward the Pendleton Point Overlook, passing some deer along the way:

The view was impressive:

The building on the other side of the canyon that you can see in the video is where we would spend Saturday night:

On the way to our accommodations, we stopped for another view of the falls, from a different angle:

We also took a walk along the short Davis Trail, only a ½ mile (805 meters) roundtrip:

The girls were trying to determine if the yellowish tinge of the stream was due to discoloration of the water. The conclusion was that it was the result of the streambed sediment:

Another spectacular view was had at Lindy Point. The scenic overlook is 3047 feet (929 meters) in elevation:

We finally checked into the Blackwater Lodge late in the afternoon:

There was yet another viewing platform just behind our room:

While the girls relaxed in the room I took a walk along the Elakala Trail, about a mile (1.61 kilometers) in total length. The waters next to the hotel eventually end up in the river at the bottom of the canyon:

The wife and I both had the beef brisket for dinner. Sitting nearby was a large, bearded gentleman clad in a black T-shirt. The back of his shirt read "My faith", with a drawing of a cross; "My flag", with a banner that wasn't the Stars and Stripes; and "My folk", which fortunately I couldn't make out clearly. I wanted to ask him how he reconciled his Christian faith with his devotion to a country that broke away from the U.S. in order to preserve the institution of slavery, but he seemed like the type who would turn violent once it became apparent he couldn't win a theological debate. 

The following day we would drive by a "Fuck Biden" flag flying from someone's property. Stay classy, Mountain State!:

 

The view from behind the lodge on Sunday morning:

The same view following breakfast, between breaks in the rain and after a brief hailstorm:

From Blackwater Falls State Park, we made another 2½ hour-drive, this time to Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, located at the point where the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers meet. I'd done some hiking there (almost passing out in the process, from what I assumed at the time was heat exhaustion, but which I now wonder might have been related to my heart condition), but it was the first time to visit for the girls:

We had lunch at the Rabbit Hole gastropub. The 11-ounce (312 grams) haddock that comprised my fish and chips meal proved a challenge to finish:

This is why I decided to become a father. It's a long-term investment that's starting to pay off now that my daughter can drive:

After lunch we visited some of the local shops, including Tessoterica:

Amber is standing in West Virginia. Behind her and to the left is the state of Maryland; to the right is Virginia:

Harpers Ferry is best known as the place where the abolitionist John Brown raided the Federal arsenal there in an ill-fated attempt to arm slaves and spark an insurrection. This monument marks the site of the original armory:

Waiting for a train at the functioning station. It's possible to take an Amtrak train from Alexandria, Virginia to Harpers Ferry:

A vintage candy store where we spent some cash on future cavities. There were many old, familiar brands, but not my favorite from the 1970's:

A couple of freight trains passed through during our time in Harpers Ferry. My daughter couldn't believe how long the trains were:

Some of the older buildings have been turned into museums:

It's a surprisingly short drive (less than 1½ hours) back to Falls Church, which Amber did, and did very well. 

I'll end this post with some good news and some bad news. First, the good news: the Chinese embassy approved our visas, meaning we'll be traveling to China this summer.

And the bad news: the Chinese embassy approved our visas, meaning we'll be traveling to China this summer.

If you've been following the news about the Omicron outbreaks in Shanghai 上海 and Beijing 北京 (the Chaoyang 朝阳 area, where most of the capital's cases have been detected, is also where we're going to be living), then you know as well as I do that everything is up in the air at this point. We're scheduled to fly from Seattle to Shanghai at the end of July, but if that gets canceled, we may have to travel to China on a charter flight from Washington, D.C. in mid-August. All we can do at this point is wait and see how events transpire, and plan accordingly. 

Or to put it another way, 不以物喜，不以己悲*.

Sorry, but it has to be shared:

*Don't be affected emotionally by what's happening around you.