Have you ever booked at last-minuteish adventure?! Because Josh and I are both planners, we rarely do this. Way back in the winter, we began to think about our summer. Usually, we spend a lot of it at my parent's cottage in Canada on Lake Huron; it's my most favorite place in the entire world. However, with Covid, the border has been closed and has remained closed. It was important to us to have a trip planned somewhere in the summer just in case we were not able to go to Canada this summer. It was clear based on how little inventory there was that a lot of people were adventuring this summer, which makes complete sense. After a lot of research (of course), we had landed on a stay in Northern North Carolina by the ocean in August and were so excited about it!
After making the decision to go back to classroom, I realized this trip was going to back up to when my school was starting and that made me a bit queasy. Could I really enjoy this trip to North Carolina with a new school year looming?! In early July, we began to look for something else that we could do earlier. The biggest requirement was that we could be near water to get back some of the Lake Huron vibes that we were missing so terribly. That's how we ended up heading to VIRGINIA.
Where We Stayed
Virginia had been on our adventure list for a while: it has mountains, history, tons of outdoor adventuring, and we've driven through it on our way to other places so many times, but always in the dark. We wanted to really see it! Josh found an awesome cabin. It lured us with its 30 acres of trails, cow pastures, and mountain views. The cabin also had a small swim-able pond. The location was remote, which we loved, but close enough to have some great day trips. We were in!
We left our house in the middle of the night and in ten hours, we had arrived in Free Union, Virginia. The cabin had incredible rustic charm, a wrap around deck with views of the pond, mountains, lots of forest, and was in the middle of nowhere like we hadn't seen before. Wifi was spotty, no TVs, and no phone service at all. That turned out to be an amazing gift. The kids LOVED the pond and could've swam all day every day. There was a cow pasture near, hundreds of chickens across the street, and the cabin was nestled in a Mennonite Community.
Shenandoah National Park
Our cabin was less than a half hour from Shenandoah National Park, which was also somewhere we had wanted to visit. We did one full day there and a second day where we hiked into a pedestrian entrance to the park, which was near our cabin. The park wasn't crowded and being on the Appalachian Trail was super cool. The park was gorgeous with amazing views of the Blue Ridge Mountains and lush forest as far as you could see.
We decided to hike to a waterfall Lewis Spring Falls Loop, which turned out to be the hardest hike we've ever done. It was over three miles, half of it being uphill. Yes, everyone walked it, even my three-year-old, yes, at least one person asked if we could get helicoptered out of there, and yes, we all somehow made it.
Washington DC
I've never been to Washington DC before! Once we realized it was only two hours away, it felt like a day trip we needed to have. As I was learning about DC, I didn't realize all of the museums there and all kid-friendly experiences there. The museums aren't at full capacity yet and needed to be booked head of time and everything was full so we decided to do as much outdoor activities at possible in our short trip. We began by eating lunch under a shady tree by the Washington Monument. I always dig a meal with a view and that had to be one of my favorites. After, we walked around the National Mall for a few hours seeing every monument and memorial there. We loved the Lincoln Memorial and the view. Even with people bustling around, it was somehow peaceful and serene. The MLK Jr. Memorial was breathtaking; the detailing of the monument was incredible. We saw a lot of beautiful informative things, but the World War II Memorial was our favorite. It may have had something to do with that fact that it was 100 degrees and you could dip your feet into the fountain there ;)
After walking to the White House, we got in the car and drove around seeing the outside of a lot of the museums, driving by the capitol building, and seeing the biggest Catholic Church in the Western Hemisphere. After more than three miles walking in the stifling heat, the kids were exhausted and driving around was such a treat. Speaking of treat, we never go to a city without getting some ice cream and finding a local playground. We did those two things to end our day trip. DC was wonderful- I'm so glad we got to go there.
Charlottesville
Charlottesville, Virginia was the closest populated city to where we were staying in Free Union. It was about thirty-five minutes away. We had another awesome day trip there. Our adventures started at the University of Virginia. This campus was absolute gorgeous- there was so much history and an adorable downtown. We also visited the pedestrian mall in Charlottesville, which was a huge area of restaraunts and shops on a pedestrian only street. Again, we got some ice cream in ;)
Virginia is, in Fact, for Lovers
I honestly didn't know what to expect from Virginia. Because we booked the trip and went so quickly, I didn't really have time to research or plan out what we might see or do. It far exceeded my expectations in every way. Virginia was beautiful: from the vastness of the Blue Ridge Mountains to the incredible details of the MLK Jr Memorial in DC to the red brick and white pillars on so many buildings at the University of Virginia. My eyes smiled so many times at what we saw. What I'm learning about travel and adventuring is that everywhere has beauty, everywhere has charm, everywhere has experiences that make it special. We unplugged, had so much family time, spent a ton of time outdoors, sweat a LOT, and made awesome memories.
Comments
Post a Comment