Since I’m stationed in VA, I travel often to DC where a close friend works and we always have a blast. I was headed up there one weekend, close to the end of summer and drawing near to my departure for Japan. When I scheduled to come, she said she had a surprise for me.

What is it I demanded, but she refused to tell me, but her only clue was that I needed old sneakers and my bathing suit?! What does that even mean? The worst part was I was going for the whole weekend and she wasn’t telling me what the surprise was until Sunday when we went. I was very excited but also upset that I could get her to give me any other clues before then.

We always try to hit up a museum or monument when I stop in DC and so this weeks theme was the Air Force monument. It’s a simple monument but the quotes are powerful.

The Monument

When Sunday rolled around we had to wake up early even though we had been out partying the night before and we stopped at a gas station for Dunkin donuts before we met up with 3 of her coworkers who were also going and already knew the secret. M had got the tickets for the event on Groupon which is a very good deal I might add and so we started our drive to our destination.

She told me we were going to West Virginia and I was even more excited because I always loving visiting WV. Holla! They finally told me what we were doing when we started on our way: RAFTING DOWN RAPIDS WITH RIVER RIDERS AT HARPERS FERRY.

She planned a great trip. When we arrived we were a little behind schedule since we had gotten lost along the way but they gave us our rafts and a floating cooler to put beer in to take along for the ride. We loaded the bus and were off. When we first got to the river we had a lot of paddling to do because it was very calm waters, but as you approached the rapid area things picked up quickly. We had a great time! I’d recommend it to anyone, kids were out there too.

The rapids themselves were not very intense but it gave you enough excitement as you went through them and then you would come to a lazy part in the river where you would just bob along until you got to another set of rapids and do it again. The view was great and it felt good to be lazy on the river drinking a few beers. We all loved it!

It took a few hours to get to the end of the bank and when we got out of the water we rode the bus back to the lodge and they fed us hot dogs and hamburgers, potato salad, chips, and more beers. Just a glorious day overall. It started storming so we did not go back out on the river and instead we headed home and drove every where for snack McFlurry’s. I love coming back to good ole’ WV!