Virginia - Day Two
May. 31st, 2006 08:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eumeliaBegan late.
We were all so exhausted from the traveling we basically just died in our beds and woke up with the kiddies, which was about 07:00 AM, the parental units were kind enough to let me sleep ‘till around eightish.
I awoke to the lovely sound of birds and wind, quite calming and I began to help get ready for the morning hike.
And with a few minor crisis’s over the morning, by 10:00 we actually left the rooms and were out towards to hiking spot.
The hike was a moderate one with many high and lows and lots of greenery, as you’ll see from the pictures.
It was called South Falls and I had forgotten what fun it is to hike in nature, though the whole place was very artificial, so many people, but then again you it was a National Holiday and all of the Eastern USA was there, so it wasn’t very surprising.
A nice surprise was a group of Israelis (with obnoxious kids) was there on the same hike as well.
I have to say that traveling with young children is extremely difficult, I mean, the majority of the packing was just for them! Also the numerous stopping because Shvo was curious about everything (unsurprising, being the little urban child that he is) and Libby who was cooped in the back carrier and was in need of a feed quite often.
Did I mention childfree?
But seriously it was fun just to be in a place I’d never been before, in a place where things were actually natural.
There was a stream and slippery rocks; the water was gorgeous and freezing! Shvo didn’t feel the cold, but I felt as if my toes were steaming and freezing.
Seriously, the water was so cold it hurt.
The way back to the parking lot (where our monster lay in wait) was very, very hard.
Since the Park is on the side of a mountain practically all the hikes begin at a summit and lead down, meaning you gotta climb up to get back where you started.
In addition to the heat, humidity and mass of civilization in this very tames wilderness, there was a whole lot of poison ivy.
Why is this important?
You try finding a place to pee where you can actually crouch, but poison ivy is in the way. I was lucky enough to find a rock with a ditch behind where the ivy was absent.
So there was a little bit of roughing, I had forgotten how nice it is to let out the call of nature, in nature.
I’m not being sarcastic my friends; dead seriousness.
Once we finished the hike and had our lovely lunch we headed back the Behemoth and went for a nice relaxing drive along the Skyland drive, which is the road that goes from one end of the Park to the other, we only drove for a short section, stopping at numerous observation points which were beautiful.
Oh, I forgot to mention we had the greatest views from our balconies in our rooms, also amazing, sunsets over the Blue Ridge Mountains, I was in awe.
I’m in awe just thinking about it.
Our world is a beautiful, taken-for-granted place.
I suppose you can tell from the tone of my accounts that I was a little sad throughout the Vacation; mainly because there were too many people who I don’t believe really appreciated the place they were in and because Shenandoah is such commercialized place and most of it was artificially made – I mean the trails were actual trails.
There were Dears (beautiful, sweet innocent dears) crossing roads to lodges and a Cotton Mouth snake that inspired a poem I’ll publish here, once it’s fixed up a little, the snake was being observed by people who were stomping their feet trying to make it move – stupidity, when you see a snake you go quite and leave it alone!
It was about six o’clock when we got back to our rooms and we showered and got ready to eat at the resorts restaurant. Shvo and I spent a lot of quality time together at the play ground… I hate other people’s children all they do is get in the way, but Shvo warmed up to them and he ended up having a lot of fun.
The food was okay, getting back to the room and eating cookies from Trader Joe’s was better.
Went to sleep pretty late, but the Maxwell House coffee was worth it
End of day two.
We were all so exhausted from the traveling we basically just died in our beds and woke up with the kiddies, which was about 07:00 AM, the parental units were kind enough to let me sleep ‘till around eightish.
I awoke to the lovely sound of birds and wind, quite calming and I began to help get ready for the morning hike.
And with a few minor crisis’s over the morning, by 10:00 we actually left the rooms and were out towards to hiking spot.
The hike was a moderate one with many high and lows and lots of greenery, as you’ll see from the pictures.
It was called South Falls and I had forgotten what fun it is to hike in nature, though the whole place was very artificial, so many people, but then again you it was a National Holiday and all of the Eastern USA was there, so it wasn’t very surprising.
A nice surprise was a group of Israelis (with obnoxious kids) was there on the same hike as well.
I have to say that traveling with young children is extremely difficult, I mean, the majority of the packing was just for them! Also the numerous stopping because Shvo was curious about everything (unsurprising, being the little urban child that he is) and Libby who was cooped in the back carrier and was in need of a feed quite often.
Did I mention childfree?
But seriously it was fun just to be in a place I’d never been before, in a place where things were actually natural.
There was a stream and slippery rocks; the water was gorgeous and freezing! Shvo didn’t feel the cold, but I felt as if my toes were steaming and freezing.
Seriously, the water was so cold it hurt.
The way back to the parking lot (where our monster lay in wait) was very, very hard.
Since the Park is on the side of a mountain practically all the hikes begin at a summit and lead down, meaning you gotta climb up to get back where you started.
In addition to the heat, humidity and mass of civilization in this very tames wilderness, there was a whole lot of poison ivy.
Why is this important?
You try finding a place to pee where you can actually crouch, but poison ivy is in the way. I was lucky enough to find a rock with a ditch behind where the ivy was absent.
So there was a little bit of roughing, I had forgotten how nice it is to let out the call of nature, in nature.
I’m not being sarcastic my friends; dead seriousness.
Once we finished the hike and had our lovely lunch we headed back the Behemoth and went for a nice relaxing drive along the Skyland drive, which is the road that goes from one end of the Park to the other, we only drove for a short section, stopping at numerous observation points which were beautiful.
Oh, I forgot to mention we had the greatest views from our balconies in our rooms, also amazing, sunsets over the Blue Ridge Mountains, I was in awe.
I’m in awe just thinking about it.
Our world is a beautiful, taken-for-granted place.
I suppose you can tell from the tone of my accounts that I was a little sad throughout the Vacation; mainly because there were too many people who I don’t believe really appreciated the place they were in and because Shenandoah is such commercialized place and most of it was artificially made – I mean the trails were actual trails.
There were Dears (beautiful, sweet innocent dears) crossing roads to lodges and a Cotton Mouth snake that inspired a poem I’ll publish here, once it’s fixed up a little, the snake was being observed by people who were stomping their feet trying to make it move – stupidity, when you see a snake you go quite and leave it alone!
It was about six o’clock when we got back to our rooms and we showered and got ready to eat at the resorts restaurant. Shvo and I spent a lot of quality time together at the play ground… I hate other people’s children all they do is get in the way, but Shvo warmed up to them and he ended up having a lot of fun.
The food was okay, getting back to the room and eating cookies from Trader Joe’s was better.
Went to sleep pretty late, but the Maxwell House coffee was worth it
End of day two.
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Date: 2006-06-01 12:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-01 12:44 am (UTC)