Time to hike!

My adventure buddy for the first half of my BYU-Hawaii tenure was a free spirit named Jen.  And she just moved to the DC area!  Her timing was perfect - she got here in my favorite window of the year when the weather is perfect for being outdoors.  Perfect weather for a hike. And so hike we did.  We found a great place inside the beltway, right off GW Parkway.  We saw lots of interesting wildlife...like some frogs, chipmunks, and metallic-shiny green beetles....and snakes!!!  Here are all the ones we saw:

Look at its eyes!!  This one was hanging out under the water - directly below a spot we kept walking over.  After this, Jen found a big stick and tried to pick it up. 

This one was sunbathing right by the rock we were sitting on for several minutes before we spotted it. I tried to get closer so we could have a pic to show how big it was (pretty big), but as soon as it noticed, it plopped into the river and disappeared.

And on an unrelated note, look at this beautiful girl I spotted later that day.