oh-wva-ky

folks, we're in huntington west virginia visiting my relatives. i'm ashamed to say that i hadn't seen them in over 11 years, and jenn had never met them. it's been a great experience so far, and we also managed to squeeze in a trip to a national park to meet roberto.

here's a bit about our trip, extracted from an email i just sent my coworkers:

west virginia is beautiful and rainy. we saw the new river gorge yesterday and drove down into it. it was drizzly, and clouds encircled the hilltops and filtered through the bare tree branches, and the river was green like jade. my friend rob and i hopped around on gigantic mossy sandstone boulders and found a sycamore leaf the size of a serving plate. we ate funky wood-fired pizzas at a great little 5-table restaurant and we got to meet his wonderful boyfriend, wes.

jenn has met aunts and uncles and cousins and has really fallen in love with how different and cool this place really is. it's been really, really good to reconnect with my family - they're so kind.

we come back to the hotel after a visit to the places where my family lives in the hills and hollers, and pick mandolins and listen to bluegrass. we drive over the coal trains on the banks of the ohio, and the river barges full of the very same stuff, on our way back and forth between ohio and kentucky and west virginia. even now, in november when everything is pretty much dead, the biomass is astounding - so many plants, so much water, so many critters.

we took a picture of my mom and dad in front of the church they were married in 44 years ago. dad gave mom a kiss on her cheek.