October Catch-Up

I have been very remiss in posting lately, because, well, life has gotten pretty hectic.  I did get the chance, though to escape the frenetic pace of the city the past two weekends, so wanted to write about those.

My grandpa's 80th birthday was over Columbus Day weekend, so, despite, some unexpected health issues for Grampsy, the majority of the family gathered at their house for part of the long weekend.  It was wonderful to see my mom's side of the family (as well as spend the weekend with my little family of four).  We hadn't all gotten together in a while, so I was happy as a clam to catch up with everyone, especially my uncle Kevin, who lives in Colorado and who I don't see very often.  My dad, two of my uncles, one of my cousins and I went on a great 7-mile hike near Grammy and Grampsy's house, and God knows I'm a total sucker for a nice hike and some pretty foliage.  It's the New Englander in me :)

This weekend was Dan's and my much-anticipated getaway, making this my second straight weekend in the Shenandoahs.  Luckily, Dan had given in to my nagging agreed to go hiking (his first time!) with me. I had kept my fingers crossed all week for decent weather, since one of our objectives was hiking Old Rag.  We braved the traffic and, not two hours from the city, arrived at our home for the weekend, the charming Mayneview B&B.  We quickly headed down to Main St. to find something to eat, as one of the owners of the B&B told us, "this is a small town, so things close early."

We woke up bright and early (6:45- good thing we're both morning people!) to leave for Old Rag, since it was about a 40-minute drive from the B&B and we were told that the parking lot fills up early.  It was a fantastic 9-mile hike (including the walk to and from the parking lot).  I was puzzled at first that it had been described as a "very difficult" hike, since the uphill wasn't overly strenuous.  But then we came to the rock scaramble part of the hike, which looks something like this person's photo at times.  It was quite challenging, especially considering that it had rained for three days prior to our hike.  There was one particular rock that we had to take one-at-a-time, meaning that there was a bit of a traffic jam.  However, the fact that other people were around worked in our favor, considering the fact that, due to the presence of only one foothold to grab onto with your hand and no traction on the slippery rock, you really needed another person to hoist you up.  Thank God for Dan being able to drag me up the rock, because I certainly would not have been able to do it on my own, what with my two-year-old-esque arm strength.

Luckily, after a difficult climb up (the rock scramble had to have lasted at least an hour), the downhill was relatively uneventful.  Whereas one false step could have resulted in serious injury on the rock scramble, we had a leisurely trek down the mountain.  In fact, the last 2.5 miles were easy breezy, as they were along a road.  All in all, the hike took us about 4.5 hours, including stoppage time, so we made excellent time!  Yay us!  I think that hiking, particularly difficult hikes like that one, is terrific for couples, and we definitely felt a sense of shared accomplishment afterward.

After grabbing a quick bite to eat, we went to the B&B and crashed for a few hours because we were EXHAUSTED!  After exploring Luray, which took about a half-hour, we decided that we might as well have a light early dinner and go back to the B&B, because we were both still relatively lethargic at that point.  After some more lounge time, we decided that a dip in the hot tub (with our Virginia red wine that we had bought) would be the perfect remedy for our aching muscles, which it did turn out to be.  Then, we played a heated game of Monopoly (go figure, with two uber-competitive people), and relaxed in our room some more.  In case you hadn't guessed, the theme of Saturday (post-hike, that is) was relaxation.

On Sunday, after enjoying a delicious breakfast at the B&B, we toured the Luray Caverns, which were really spectacular (although I'm still not convinced that they were worth the $23 entrance fee).  We then drove up to see my grandparents, and had lunch with Grammy, my uncle Kevin and my cousin Amy.  I was excited to introduce Dan to that side of the family, and have really felt so fortunate throughout our relationship that he has been so open to spending time with my family and friends (as I am open to spending time with HIS family and friends, by extension).  From there, we drove home, and so ended our wonderful weekend away.  It was the first time we had gone away together for the weekend, and hopefully there will be many more trips like that in the future!

Here are some pictures from our hike:

 Are you jealous? :)

 There is NO question that fall is my favorite season

We survived!  At this point, it was really windy, so we really should have taken a picture at the base of the mountain to celebrate not having been blown off the peak!