Our Autumn Weekend

"Let's get together this fall and do something to see the leaves," I suggested to Evelyn's brother and wife, Ken and Susan Aulen.
They called several weeks ago with an idea I hadn't anticipated. "Let's ride the Loveland Bike Trail." We agreed that this weekend would be the time.
Ken and Susan got here about 5:00 Friday. Wendy Wagoner had been here much of the afternoon, doing some work, using our copier, and visiting with  Evelyn. Evelyn decided to fix white chicken chili for dinner; Wendy had requested she make it at least one time before Wendy goes to Tanzania in January, and Friday night seemed like the right time.
It was a wonderful dinner. The soup is a favorite; we had plenty of good relishes to accompany it. And I stopped by Graeter's to pick up a dutch apple pie and cinnamon ice cream for dessert.
Wendy (and Milo!) left about 7:30, but we enjoyed staying up and catching up with Ken and Susan.
The next morning Evelyn had pumpkin muffins, apple butter, fruit, and scrambled eggs for breakfast. We needed to eat hearty before our big day of exercise!
We got to the bike rental shop in Loveland after 10:30, and we were on our way after 11:00. Ken and
 Susan brought their bikes, and Evelyn and I rented ours.

It was a gray, chilly day. But the showers of the early morning had stopped by the time we were on the trail. But a breeze plus the wind chill of just riding the bikes made Evelyn wish she'd worn gloves and me happy I'd brought my ear  protection.
We rode 8.7 miles from Loveland to Milford, with a stop to rest our our legs and catch our breath (and eat granola bars and water) on the way. But even with the stop, we got there in about 90 minutes.

We rode and walked our bikes into Historic Milford (I didn't know there was a historic Milford!), and ate lunch at Padrinos on Main Street. Evelyn and I split a small pizza and a salad, and it was very good!
As it turns out, historic Milford has several little shops like you find in Waynesville or Lebanon, and we wandered through a few of them before taking out for the ride back to Loveland.
We had hoped the afternoon would get warmer, but it seemed to be getting chillier. We rode back with a couple of rest stops this time and made it to Loveland before 4:00—just before the rains came. We rode through steady rain in the car on the way home.

The trees are beautiful this year, but, oddly, not as pretty along the bike trail as some places in the neighborhoods we drive through every day.

We had about an hour to warm up and clean up before leaving for dinner. I had made reservations at Tellers in Hyde Park. It's a nice place, and we had a gift certificate and Groupon to use there. This was the perfect opportunity to enjoy a special dinner at a favorite place.
Evelyn and Susan had the salmon. Ken had the trout and shrimp. And I gave up the chance to eat healthy by ordering the pork shank. Oh, it was good--juicy, falling off the bone. Each couple shared a coffee creme brulee for dessert. We were full and happy.
We came home and visited for a couple of hours before giving up for the day.
At 6:30 Sunday morning, one of our smoke alarms started chirping, and we fumbled half asleep to try to figure out why, since Evelyn had replaced all the batteries in all the smoke alarms not long ago. I got the bright idea to push the "Test/Alarm" button on the errant device, which set of sirens, and a digital voice "Evacuate. Evacuate!" through every smoke alarm in the house (some time ago we upgraded to a system that connects all the alarms.) I was mortified, and  Evelyn went downstairs, where Ken and Susan had been sleeping, to tell them they did not need to evacuate!
I had planned to sleep till 7:00, but at 6:45 I gave up and headed to the bathroom to shave.
Sunday we enjoyed worship at 9:00 at Mason. Trevor DeVage's sermon was the wrap-up for our "I'm a Church Member." It was a nice challenge. "If you're a growing church member, you're a dying church member." Three attributes of a growing church member: He's serving, giving, and going. (I think I need to rethink all three in my life!)
I had received a gift card to Mimi's from the folks in my office for Boss's Day, so we used it to treat Ken and Susan to breakfast after church. They were on their way not too long after lunch, and Evelyn an I settled into an afternoon of errands: grocery, lawn mowing and other yard errands, checkbook updating, and assorted online visiting and task-completing.
We ate popcorn and leftover pie and ice cream for dinner while we watched 60 Minutes, Madame Secretary, and the episode of NCIS we had recorded last Monday.
It was a very pleasant autumn weekend. The weather was beautiful Friday and Sunday (not so much when we were out IN it all day Saturday!) . I'm guessing we won't have many more pretty weekends yet this year.