Seems like this should be a long post, but it won't be. Just a little bit of catching up to do. There was no cell service or wifi available in Shenandoah National Park and I just now got access to wifi here in Baltimore so I can update a bit.
We started off Day 9 in Charlottesville touring Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home. It's a beautiful property. Jefferson was an incredibly interesting man. A lot has changed since I was there last, new visitor center and museum, some new displays around the grounds. All very well done, worth visiting if you are in Charlottesville.
Next we hit a grocery store and headed for the mountains. Shenandoah is such a special place for me, and it always will be. That excitement seems to have worn off on the boys, they were as happy and at peace there as I was. Lots of great hiking around the park, tons of animal sightings including a couple of bears, tons of dear, about 10 gazillion chipmunks, even peregrine falcons feeding on some quail on a clifftop.
Monday night we had a good old fashioned weenie roast over the campfire, ate s'mores, watched the stars come up. We even had an opportunity for Alex to set up his telescope and watch the nearly full moon for a bit. It was quite chilly though. We did not expect to be cold here in Virginia.
Tuesday was our day of hiking. We started off with a ranger program in the morning, so ended up hitting the trails a little later. By dinner time it was starting to mist a little. Not a happy thing since our Smoky Mountain camping got derailed due to weather. Mike and I walked to the ranger station and checked the weather, no rain was forecast for Tuesday, but it was forecast for early Wednesday morning and all throughout the day Wednesday. We finished dinner, I decided it was going to be very cold again for sleeping so I went to the camp store and bought a couple more blankets. By the time I got back it's starting to rain lightly and a heavy fog is rolling in. We decided to pack up everything but the tents and sleeping pads/blankets so that it wouldn't get anymore wet than it already was. Mike and Alex went to another evening ranger program, Ben and I packed the car. By the time we found each other the fog was so thick you couldn't see more than a couple steps in front of you, it was raining, and cold. We settled in for a long, cold, wet night that wasn't a lot of fun. Somewhere in the middle of the night though, the wind kicked up, quite fiercely actually. That wind turned out to be a good thing, even though it was cold it dried out the wet tents.
Wednesday morning we woke early, we were all cold, had all slept badly. I made breakfast, we checked the weather, and they pushed the rain chances off until later in the day. We decided to take advantage of the windy morning and pulled all of the wet gear out of the car from the night before. After a bit of discussion and the fact that it looked like rain was definitely in the forecast for Wednesday afternoon/evening we decided to find a room at the lodge instead of camping the last night. We packed up our now dry gear and set off. Turns out to have been a good decision, about an hour or so after we broke camp a really heavy downpour that lasted for a good 20-30 minutes came through and would have soaked everything, again. We did get one more shower Wednesday night, right about the time we would have been settling into the tents for the night. Aside from that brief bit of rain though, Wednesday turned out to be a gorgeous day. The boys finished their junior ranger books they started 5 years ago and we did some more hiking. Had a nice restful evening in the lodge.
Thursday morning broke clear and cool and gorgeous. The most beautiful mountain morning you can imagine. I woke before everyone else and took advantage of my time to enjoy a few minutes of solitude in one of my favorite places. It really was heart rending to leave the park yesterday. All other places/times on this trip I have been ready to move on. It was almost more than I could bare to leave my spot yesterday.
But, we had plans to meet some friends in Gainesville on route to Baltimore and Mike's family. We met the Cohen's when Ben was in 3rd grade, they gave us Pepper when they moved back here to VA. Ben and Lily have a very special bond and Ben was beyond excited to spend the day with Lily. So we went to their house, had lunch, caught up on the past year apart and then headed to the Udvar-Hazy Museum, that very magical place where they house the very best of the toys for the Air & Space Museum. Things like an SR-71 Blackbird, Concorde, the Discovery Orbiter. Just amazing. The space shuttle had me in complete awe. To know where it's been and to see it up close is almost incomprehensible. Very cool. After a hard goodbye with very special people we sat in crappy northern VA traffic and headed to Baltimore.
And here we sit, Friday morning. It's good to be with family, been a very long time since we've seen each other. Their new house is lovely, the boys are thrilled at having time with Grammy & Grandpa, we are all very relaxed and happy here. We will spend the day exploring Baltimore and tomorrow we will catch up with Mike's brother's and their families. The boys can't wait for some cousin time!
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