Oh Shenandoah

This past weekend we took a day trip to Shenandoah National Park with our friends Annie and Victor. They have a year pass to all the national parks courtesy of the United States military and were happy to share their car with us so we could get in free too. We were happy to be able to spend some time with them before they leave Virginia in January for the sandy beaches of Okinawa. Win win!

Oh, and since we are talking about Shenandoah, I can't talk about the Shenandoah Valley without thinking of this lovely song. And hey SVU peeps, I know I should be posting a version of an SVU choir singing it but the only ones I could find were poor quality so.... sorry. Imagine it is pictures of Main Hall instead of W&L's campus.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand. We went to Shenandoah National Park and it was delightful. The day was crisp and clear and the view from the highest peak was fabulous. The hike up was short but a little steep for someone carrying a toddler on their back. Good thing Victor was there to lend a hand, er, back, and carry that load for us. Thank you Marine Corps for preparing Victor for that moment.

Pic by Annie

Annie and I 

Pic by Annie

Charly enjoyed the view from the top, aside from the extreme wind that comes with standing on the highest peak. Lucky for us she took a little snooze on the way down so she wasn't a total crank the rest of the day.

I must say she was a trooper. She got car sick on the way up and threw up in her car seat and all over the only shirt we brought for her (bad mom!) so the little dear wore just a jacket over her "neebles" as she likes to call them. Here she is happily not wearing that jacket anymore on the ride home.

The town just outside of the park was quaint and filled with road side stands selling apple cider. This gem is the essence of backwoods Virginia in my mind. Confederate flag blanket, anyone? Love it.

We ended the day with some fresh cold cider and a little antiquing. Thanks for inviting us, Annie and Victor! We had a great time!

PS- Annie posted about our hike here and even linked to a facebook album of us hiking around China together. What a trip. Good times, Annie, good times!

The Great Outdoors

Last week cooled down a bit from our upper 90's summer in Norther Virginia. It has been a hot and humid one this year and when its that hot the only thing you want to do is go to the pool or stay in the air conditioning. Since things cooled down we decided to go on a little hike and enjoy the great outdoors before winter gets here. We are about a 5 minute drive to the Potomac river  and on the other side is Maryland. I know crazy right?! So close. Who knew? We are also about 40 minutes away from West Virginia. Leesburg is in an interesting local. The hike we decided to take was one that takes you over to the Potomac. It is an easy hike and we didn't have to drive far, so double bonus!

Charly loved it! We made up a little song about the things that we saw. I would sing, "We're going on a hike, we're gunna see a...." and say something that I saw. I even let her fill in some things. Then as we hiked I would recap the things we saw. She is really big into singing things and telling stories about things she did so she loved it! Ever since the hike she has been talking about it. She even remembers the color of the butterfly we saw.

Harper's Ferry

Living on the East Coast we are surrounded by historical cities, landmarks, battle sites etc. It can kind of be overwhelming sometimes, and with all the awesome stuff there is, there are a lot of lame things too. Sometimes you will hear about this awesome place and you go and it is a foundation and a plaque. Oh that was definitely worth the hour and a half drive (said in the most sarcastic voice possible)! Well Harper's Ferry was worth it! Plus it was free! With only a 45 minute drive ahead of us we were on our way!

Before we went to old town Harper's Ferry we decided to take a little detour to a flea market!

Air and Space

We have had some real scorchers this summer in the DC area and since we don't have a lot of mulah for vacations this year we have been on the hunt for some fun, and most importantly free, activities to do on the weekends. Luckily DC is one of the best places to find awesome free stuff.

On the hottest day this summer (or I should say the hottest day so far) we decided to keep our activities indoors. So we headed over to the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space museum about 15 miles away from our house. We had been wanting to go for some time, but sometimes you don't see the beauty in your own backyard. There are actually two air and space museums, one on the national mall and the other(Udvar-Hazy) near the Dulles airport. They are both owned by the Smithsonian and have free admission. The bummer is parking at Udavar-Hazy is $15.00 (not free). However, we found out that after 4 pm parking is free and the museum is open until 6:30pm during the summer! Booya!

It seems like they have every airplane ever invented in this place!

Charly loves airplanes so she was kind of in awe of this place

Massanutten

To celebrate my youngest sister's birthday, my family went on a weekend trip last week to a resort called Massanutten (I know it's fun say). Massanutten is in Harrisonburg, VA and is mainly a ski resort (I know skiing in Virginia is almost as funny as saying "Massanutten"), but there is plenty to do there in the summer. They have several golf courses, an indoor water park, horseback riding, hiking, petting zoo, and it's all nestled in the Blue Ridge mountains.

This trip had the perfect fun to relaxation ratio. I often feel that vacations can be too far on the "do" spectrum where its go-go-go all the time and you don't get a break, especially when you are only there for a weekend. Then when you get home you feel like you need a vacation to recoup from your vacation. Some seem too far on the other end of the spectrum and it feels like a waste of time and money. This one was a perfect mix of both.

Charly had a blast as you can see. It has been a while since she has been swimming. After the shock of taking the whole place in, she was ready to swim and play. She loved the kiddy area, but the problem with the kiddy area is you are wet, but not under water, so she got really cold. She is really going to get a kick out of the pool this summer.

Fair Fare

We had a fantastic weekend. Not only was it General Conference (which I always look forward to), but we spent a little time at the Virginia State Fair. We met Matt's parents there on Saturday morning for a fun filled  day of fair fare (see what I did there? how is that for alliteration?)

We started with some photo ops:

Productive, Seductive, Virginia: Wade's Mill

Not so long ago, Matt wrote a post titled 'Productive, Seductive Virginia', (which, by the way, is a phrase that came from a Virginia Tourism billboard in Richmond near the Phillip Morris factory, ironically enough) where he mentioned some of the things we love about this state. Well, when that post was conceived, we were having a conversation about all the neat places we had seen and others we wanted to visit. I thought it might be neat to share some of our weekend (or day trip) visits as a sort of travel journal. Since a lot of our readers live in Virginia, it isn't too far fetched to think that maybe some of you will be inspired to check out the awesome places our great state has to offer. And all you non-Virginians, I bet your states have cool stuff too, maybe this will inspire you to find out what there is to see around your neck of the woods. And of course, maybe people won't think anything of it and will not be at all inspired. Who knows. At the very least, we will have a little digital scrapbook of our adventures!

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, we attended a wedding of some friends this past weekend. The wedding was in Maryland, but the reception was held in Buena Vista, Virginia on Saturday night. We visited Wade's Mill Saturday afternoon on our way down.

Productive, Seductive, Virginia

Holli and I are from the West coast. Holli made up a word just now, "Westcoasties," I know people, she's a poet. Although we are westcoasties, I have this fondness of Virginia that seems to intensify the longer we live here. One thing I love about Virginia is how diverse it's beauty is. Our mini-vacation to the beach was a perfect example of this. Our travels took us on a scenic tour through what I think are the three main regions of Virginia. So here they are:

THE CITY

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