If You Can't Stand The Heat, Get Out!

WHEN: April 1, 2010
WHERE: Mid-Atlantic to the Mid-West

Yes, I can stand the heat. The question is can the heat stand me. As we get ready to embark on our trip back home to Iowa (in 7 hours), I have come to accept the fact that my love for warm weather is not a mutual relationship. Weep.

Today was a great weather day from the Mid-Atlantic to the Midwest, and beyond. For that I am grateful. However, that's about the end of it. Just as we leave the heat wave bearing down on the eastern seaboard, the heat wave in the Midwest is preparing its Exodus as I type. We are due for the mid-80's the next several days here in Virginia, on top of what may be the most beautiful week of Spring here. Today was the precursor of the week ahead. Cloudless, sunny skies, temps in the 70's, trees and bushes flaunting their new leaflets, the smell of mowed grass and flowers wafting in the air - this is what we're leaving. But the one thing I could trade an early-season heat wave for is a trip home to see our amazing families and be "home".

Forecast highs for the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest (April 1-6)

I took in as much of the day as I could here before we leave. I got off work at 11 and went out to lunch with Stace for (as far as I remember) the first time. We work too far apart to be able to have lunch together so today was a great treat. I took her back to work and headed home to do some travel preparations then left as soon as I could to grab some snapshots of the day's beauty. There is an office park on the land behind our apartment complex that we drove by today for the first time after lunch (with many areas for a curious photographer to explore). I headed there with my camera and took pictures of the birds and flowers for an hour.

Don't judge me for how I spend my time before I travel.

The setting made it difficult to get a bad picture and the birds were great subjects - posing for no other reason than that they knew just as well as me how beautiful the day was. Who could be grumpy on a day like today??

The setting

The birds

Dave, are you traumatized yet?

Time to wrap this up. Stacie is already in bed and I have to get up at 4:30a.m. (and that's no April Fool's joke). You can track our flight to Detroit here and to Minneapolis here.

Iowa, here we come!!