The Weekend Getaway

Yvonne and I just spent a long weekend in the mountains. Without the kids. Or the dog. Soooo relaxing. We don't normally take vacations so this was a nice break from work and the daily grind of life. Special thanks to the in-laws for coming to visit and entertain/babysit the kids (and dog).

Wednesday started with the arrival of the in-laws and presents for Yvonne and Elizabeth. Gotta love those spring brithdays! (click here to see all the photos)



So, we left Thursday afternoon and made the trip in a few hours. We made a pit-stop in town to get a pedicure (Yvonne, not me) and socks (me, not Yvonne). I also picked up some new books. Once we made it to the resort, we checked in, unloaded our junk in the condo, and went into the "big" town of Elkton. They had a spring carnival/fair/flea market. I knew we were in the "country" but wow. Mullets, camo wife-beaters, and well, stuff that looked like it "fell off" the delivery truck. But we had fun. We had dinner at one of the resort's restaurants and headed back to the condo dodging deer and groundhogs galore.



Friday morning was our "tour." It had a tour, but it also included a sales pitch. Since we weren't interested in a time share and just wanted a free vacation, we listened politely but declined. The sales guy was doing his best to be professional, but his persona was still that of a high school guy getting drunk and having fun. And by having fun I mean being stupid. We also reported our ant problem and snagged lunch before heading into Luray Caverns. Yes, into. I had been there some time ago and it looks like they've developed it a bit more. They also had a car museum and a hedge maze. After that we headed to downtown Luray and hit a used book store, did some walking, and found an awesome place for dinner, West Main Market. Best food we had all weekend.



On Saturday we slept in, which was nice. But odd. After all those days and weeks of getting up so early, it's hard to break that habit. Anyway, we headed to Staunton and visited the farmer's market in Dayton on the way. It wasn't the farmer's market we expected. They had a few food items, but was mostly craft stuff. But the choices of beans, grains, etc. was amazingly like the old days (except with plastic containers instead of metal. Anyway, we visited the Frontier Culture Museum which had several farms from several eras and form different places. Nice to see how they shear sheep, clean the wool, run a smithy, and generally just how they lived back then. While the exhibits weren't that far apart, we splurged and rented a golf cart. Yvonne had a blast driving it. Then we went to the Virginia Hot Glass Festival at Sunspots. They had a ton of blown glass, people blowing glass, and some jewelry kiosks. Yvonne picked up a nice bracelet with some hedgehogs. We also stopped at Pufferbellies, a toy store, to get presents for the kids (and me). And we stopped at the best antique shop I've seen in ages (the Jolly Roger Haggle Shop) after lunch at the Beverly Restaurant (food was okay, but service was very slow).



Sunday was the worst day. The last day of vacation is always hard. It's great to get back home and sleep in your own bed, but man that drive was just way too short. All in all, we had a good time. I think we'd both go back to Luray for the food and Staunton for the shopping.

All the vacation photos can be found here.