September 29th, 2008 — at play, at work
This is my second trip to the Christianburg area of Virginia. Last time, on the way back to DC my dad and I took a drive up the the Blue Ridge Parkway. Yesterday, I decided to head down there and check out the southern section.
I got a bit of a lazy start. didn’t leave the hotel till just after 11. Took a bit over half-hour to go down the winding Hwy8 through Floyd until I got to Tuggle’s Gap. Last time dad and I had breakfast here. Was good food, so I decided to stop again. Lunch this time, a cheeseburger with lettuce, onion, ketchup and pickles. It was a square burger, and better than Wendy’s. Oh yea, side of onion rings along with that - hit the spot and I was back on the road before 12:30.
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July 22nd, 2008 — at play, ramblings
Ok, got back to DC last night, and got ready to do some sightseeing today. The following is notes I wrote towards the end of the day, just a stream of thoughts during my journey back home and later typed up.
7/21/2008, about 7:00PM I covered a lot of ground in DC today. Got off the Metro a bit after 10 this morning and turned West down the mall, heading towards the Washington Monument. It’s free to go up in it, but by the time I was there (bout 10:45-11am), the only times available were after 6pm. I think you can reserve spots ahead of time, good to know if I ever when I go back again someday. From there it was to the WWII memorial, down the reflecting pool and on to the Lincoln Memorial.
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July 20th, 2008 — at play
On the way back towards DC today, we decided to take the scenic route, heading south out of Christiansburg to pick up the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Blue Ridge Parkway is a recreational motor road, running over 400 miles from the Great Smoky Mountains to Shenandoah National Parks.
We started our trip with breakfast at a little place just off the parkway in Tuggle’s Gap. The restaurant has been in continuous operation since before the parkway was done, and has some motel rooms as well. We spent a few hours meandering North up the parkway, stopping at a LOT of overlooks along the way.
Then we had lunch near Roanoke and hopped back on the interstate to take in part of the Shenandoah National Park. I basically starts where the Parkway ends. We had to get to DC, so didn’t make as many stops there before heading down the mountains to catch the highway to take us towards DC.
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July 19th, 2008 — at play
It is.. well, was - Saturday AM. Dad and I were trying to decide what to do with our day off here in VA. Sight-seeing, yes, but where. I do a bit of a google search and find some information on the Cascades Recreation Area, which is part of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests.
The Recreation area has a picnic area, but the showcase is a trail that leadsup Little Stoney Creek to the Cascades waterfall. According the website:
The trail itself is a thing of beauty also. Much of it has been carved directly into existing rock and there are numerous stone steps, walls and walkways. Four bridges allow hikers to get even closer to the creek and be surrounded by the sounds and sprays of falling water. Since the trail is so close to the creek, rocks may be slippery or icy, so be careful.
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July 18th, 2008 — at play, at work
Here we are, day one in VA. Chrisiansburge to be exact. And it is the first full day since we did cross the VA border before midnight. Yes, the title says DC, but it sounds better, given the reference and all, and I was there yesterday and will be there Sunday and Monday… so… what the heck.
We got lots of work done to prep for the upcoming work on the Ben & Jerry’s Scoop Shop, and got a few others errands run… but no real sightseeing yet.
Except for this…
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July 18th, 2008 — at work, ramblings
Ok, in case you missed my previous post, I get to go to VA/DC for a long weekend trip for work and some play. The stuff below is some live notes I took on my Centro along the way, with some typos and such corrected of course.
Now, this is my first time in the airport since mid-2001, and first time dealing with the new security and all. We parked at Humphrey terminal, walked a looong way to get to where we catch the light rail, then another tram to the terminal.
Check in went ducky. No line or anything. Dropped the luggage off at the scanner. Dad went to get one last smoke in and we head to the checkpoint and the line was so-so. But then we got lucky and they seemed to open another line.
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