Back to Vacation

I never finished my vacation photos . . . I don't have many left, actually. After leaving southwestern Virginia, we went to Appomattox/Lynchburg and spent a couple of days there. We saw the site where Lee surrendered to Grant and the Civil War Museum there. Another day we went to see the Country Estate of Thomas Jefferson called Poplar Forest and the D-Day Memorial. So this was more of an historical stop than a hiking/outdoors spot, although our hotel here did have an outdoor pool that was OPEN, so we enjoyed that very much. :-)  Anyway, a couple of pictures of the D-Day Memorial . . .

The pictures don't do it justice. This was a very cool memorial that it took some time to walk through. Very well done. It you are down near Lynchburg, I highly recommend it. 

After this top, we had a couple of days left and so headed back up to northwestern Virginia to hike some more of the George Washington National Forest and to some of the waterfalls up there. However, storms were moving in - both to where we were at and at home, so we cut short a couple of days and came home. But overall, a very good and relaxing vacation this year. 

A Couple of Books

For exercise, one of the things I do is ride my bike on a stationary trainer in my basement. If you've ever ridden a bike indoors, you know that the times on the bike drags! It seems like a ride takes forever. But if I read while riding, the time usually flies. So that's what I do. Sometimes theology, but not always. I like to read other things as well, and as I am somewhat of a history buff, and especially American (Revolutionary and Civil War) history, I read a bunch of that. 

So, I thought I'd share with you two books I recently finished:

I found this book in a used book store last year sometime. I've been to Saratoga Battlefield and knew the story somewhat. But what separated this book from the rest was that a good portion of it was dedicated to the events leading up to the battle of Saratoga - a lot of information not usually given. That helped put it into context and really shed some light. So if you like this kind of history, I recommend it. It's not a "page turner" like a Jeff Shaara book is (more popularly written), and it's not short, but definitely worth the time to get into the nitty gritty. I also see that he has written on the Victory at Yorktown and Battles at Trenton and Princeton - I might have to look into those.

The book I read while on vacation this year:

I've read other books by McCullough and have usually enjoyed them. This book is not new - written back in 1978, I think - but very highly rated and does not disappoint. Again, what I really like about this book is all the historical things that happened that are not usually presented. Like, how the French were the ones to actually try and build this thing, but failed. How America got involved. All the challenges building this canal presented. So again, I would recommend. :-)

What am I going to read next? Not sure. Maybe some theology. I have some books on tap to read. I just ordered a Jeff Shaara book on the Civil War Battle of Vicksburg - used, but that hasn't arrived yet. We'll have to see what I feel like this afternoon . . .

The Devil's Bathtub

Catchy name, huh? :-)

Before leaving southwestern Virginia, we had to hike to the Devil's Bathtub. It's a loop hike - about a two mile hike in one direction (and crossing 10 streams or so), and about five miles for the rest of the loop. I wanted to do the whole loop, but signs warned us that the dry, five mile section of the hike is not much used and therefore not as well maintained. So if we didn't have a map and a compass (which we did not), we should do the two mile out and back. So we did. :-)

We went early in the morning, and boy are we glad we did! Not because of the heat, but because of the crowds! We passed one couple coming back on our way out, but we must have passed 20-30 groups while we were returning. It's not an easy hike, but well-known and a popular destination. We saw some people we knew wouldn't make it the whole way. Not hilly, but the creek crossings could be tricky.

Anyway, some pictures . . .

After this hike, there was another one we wanted to do - three waterfalls of decent size, all within one mile of the trailhead. It was a bit of a drive, but we found it. Unfortunately, my hiking boot thought we were done for the day . . .  It had started to come apart walking back from the Devil's Bathtub, but while on this little hike, it really become a problem! Then it started raining (really hard!) and I had to slog back to the car with a hiking boot that looked like this:

So, a trip to Wal-Mart, purchase some Shoo-Goo, and a repair job was next up. :-)  And good-bye to Natural Tunnel State Park . . .

More Vacation . . .

After a couple of days in Shenandoah, we drove down to Roanoke and spent the weekend there. We went kayaking on the James River - no pictures, though, as I didn't want to risk getting my camera wet! But we went down the river for a few miles, including some rapids areas. A nice day.

We did get to see the "Roanoke Star" - a famous landmark there. 

Here it is up close.  :-)

We also ate at a place called "Awful Arthur's Seafood." And while Arthur may be awful, his food was pretty good.

We then traveled down to the far southwest corner of the state and stayed in Natural Tunnel State Park. As you can see, the cabins there are REALLY nice!

And the Natural Tunnel is cool, too. Here are some views from the top and bottom, and you can see how deep the gorge that it's in is!

View from the top.

From the bottom, looking into the tunnel.

And the size of the gorge!

We hiked throughout the park the days we were there, though we did get caught in the rain. The forest blocked a lot of the rain, but we still got pretty wet.

Here we are a bit waterlogged, sitting on the porch of the cabin.

While we always hoped to see some bears, we didn't get to see any. We did see a bunch of wild turkeys, though, which look really funny when they're running!

After this, on to Appamattox!

Waterfalls

A lot of the hikes we took were specifically to waterfalls. My wife got a book out of the library to direct us to them. So the first few days in Shenandoah were hiking to waterfalls. There was some rain and we did get wet, but it was all good. One thing that was disappointing was not be able to watch a good sunset because of the clouds.

Some pics . . .

In this last pic, if I didn't know that was my youngest daughter, I wouldn't be able to tell. Looks exactly like my older daughter!

Vacation - Philly Pics

I promised some pictures from Philadelphia from my wife's camera . . .

Pat's Cheesesteaks for lunch, of course!

Inside of one of the "spurs" of the Eastern State Penitentiary.

Outside the Penitentiary, in the courtyard.

(The headphones are for the audio tour as you walked around.)

Vacation - Home and Past Home

So our time out west came to an end. Thursday morning was one last day at Capitol Reef and then the drive to Salt Lake City for our flight home. A couple last pictures . . .

We had the red eye out of Salt Lake, which left at about 11 pm (MT). That got us into Orlando about 5:30 am (ET), and then our flight back to Washington and transport home, so we got home late morning. 

But lo! Vacation was not yet over! We still had a couple more days, so after doing a couple loads of laundry and repacking a little, we loaded up the car and drove to Philadelphia. That's why I entitled this post "home and past home." We came to our current home and then drove to our past home - Philadelphia. We spend our last two nights there going to an old used book store we liked to frequent, going to a Phillies game (they won!), and also going to Eastern State Penitentiary - one of the first penitentiaries in the United States. We'd been wanting to go for a while, but never had the chance. I don't have the pictures right now, but will post some if I get them from my wive's camera. The picture I do have is of the game we went to . . .

Daughter Peasant and I with a replica of the 1980 World Series trophy.

Our Sunday in Philadelphia, we went to church at the National Mission sight there, Logos Lutheran Church. I know the pastor - he's a good guy. :-)

Vacation - One More National Park

Wednesday morning of our second week, we rose somewhat early to go back to Bryce and get one more hike in before having to depart for our last National Park. We went to see the Tower Bridge. Like one of the other trails we had taken yesterday, this one was a significant descent into the canyon, and then (of course) a significant climb to get back out! But we did well. Here is what the Tower Bridge is . . .

As the Ranger explained to us, it looks like the Tower of London. Indeed, it does!

The other thing about Bryce is that it had some cool trees, especially the different kinds of pine tree. But take a look at this one!

There were lots of these "twisted" trees.

And maybe just a couple last photos to share from Bryce . . .

And then it was on to our last stop out West, Capitol Reef National Park.

Now, I have to admit, after seeing Canyonlands, Arches, Mesa Verde, Zion, and Bryce . . . well, I didn't "get" Capitol Reef. All the others have some outstanding feature, but Capitol Reef doesn't. It has a whole lot of different things. Not that it didn't have cool stuff - it did. But it was the hardest for me to understand and wrap my mind around. After we took a Ranger-led hike on Thursday morning it made a bit more sense to me, but I have to admit, this was my least favorite of all the parks we went to. Still glad I went, though!

Can you tell where the river is?!

The thing the Ranger said is significant about Capitol Reef is that there are 19 rock layers that have been exposed, giving geologists a lot to study. It is by far the most in one place for study like this.

Tomorrow: Last Couple of Days

Vacation - Bryce Canyon

Tuesday morning, after one last hike in Zion, we headed out to our next destination: Bryce Canyon National Park.

I didn't know what to expect at Bryce - all the descriptions and brochures I had seen were pretty vague. But wow! It was simply stunning and very cool. The views were great. As we walked around the rim of the canyon, each time you look out from a different perspective you saw different features and shapes.

Some views from the top:

The vertical rock formations are called "hoodoos." A few more perspectives:

Yes, it's a long way down!

So after walking around the top and admiring all of it, we decided to hike down into the canyon and get a view from below:

This formation was called "Twin Bridges." Guess you can figure out why!

How cool is this?

The park had a challenge called "Hike the Hoodoos" to go on a number of hikes and find the medallion markers on the trails to show that you had done them. The challenge was to find three (I think there were six total). We did it! Our selfies with the medallions as proof:

After a long day, time to eat and rest. Again, not much around out here, so we stayed in more rustic accommodations. :-)

Tomorrow: More Bryce, and one last park to go.