Our Changing Weather Fortunes

Sorry that it has been a little while since the last post. Life gets busy at times and it seems to be ramping up lately. Hopefully, things will slow down a little for the end of the year.

In my last post, I wrote about the hot, dry weather. Well, as you know, we have had rain, plenty of rain. 3 to 6 inches of rain last week alone. Is the drought over? Not exactly, but the heavy rains were a great start to ending it. We just need to get consistent rains for the next 6 months and we'll be in good shape.

Temperatures have been really warm this month, but even that has changed. You can see by the graph that most of the month has seen highs and lows well above average. We'll be lucky to get to 6o today and this morning saw widespread frost in many areas for the first time all season. In spite of the recent chill, this month may very well go down as the warmest October on record.

Getting back to the busy schedule. 2 weekends ago we went to Williamsburg and stayed at the Great Wolf Lodge. This is a great place for families as there is an indoor water park along with a game called MagiQuest that my 7 year old, Philip, really loved. Williamsburg is also a beautiful part of Virginia and just about 35 minutes past Richmond.

We also went to Busch Gardens and ran out of time to do anything more than grab lunch in Colonial Williamsburg. I want to check out Colonial Williamsburg, as I remember my parents taking me when I was little and I kind of feel obligated to show my son this "living history" exhibit. Mom always felt it was important to expose us to some culture and I guess some of that has rubbed off.

In 1985, the family went to Cancun, Mexico. My brother and I were almost 19 and while we enjoyed snorkeling and the fun stuff in Cancun, Mom dragged us to Chitchen Itza, the Mayan city in the middle of the jungles of the Yucatan. It was a long bus ride, 3 hours in each direction, and it was hot, but I remember it to this day. I climbed the pyramid, both inside and out, and I marveled at the ruins. Mom didn't have to take me and my brother to this amazing place, but she felt it would be good for us. She was right!