Category: Uncategorized

On Tuesday, we spent $25 to enter the Shenandoah National Park (good for 7 days) which runs north of the Blue Ridge Parkway once you cross interstate 64.  The road through the park is known as “Skyline Drive.”  The speed limit on Skyline Drive is 35 mph except when it’s slower.  We entered Shenandoah National Park at the Swift Run Gap Entrance Station and did 3 short hikes and stopped at a couple of overlooks as we drove south back towards Interstate 64.  The park was established in 1935 and has over 500 miles of trails.  Skyline Drive follows the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains for 105 miles and has 75 scenic overlooks.

We hiked the South River Trail, the Frasier Discovery Trail, and the Blackrock Summit Trail.

Photos from the South River Trail (mile 63) —

Rocky Top Overlook View and scenic drive —

Our second hike was the Frasier Discovery Trail which was a fairly steep trail through a forest to an overlook at the the top of Loft Mountain.

Photos from the Blackrock Summit Hike —

We ended our day out by splitting a glass of wine at the lovely Afton Vineyards.

On Monday, we traveled about 45 minutes southwest out of Charlottesville to the Sherando Lake Recreation Area.  This is a beautiful park in the Blue Ridge Mountains where you can swim, hike, picnic, and/or camp.  There were a number of families enjoying the lake, but Bob and I had a great 3+ hour hike by combining a number of trails.  It was $8 per car to enter.  We have had lovely hiking conditions — temps in high 80s or low 90s with LOTS of shade.

Just down the road from where we are staying is Walnut Creek Park, a 525 acre Albermarle County park with 2 great swimming areas and 15 miles of hike and bike trails.  It’s disc golf course is also quite popular.  Bob and I spent a couple of hours on Thursday hiking around about half of the park.



The estates of three former presidents — Jefferson, Monroe, and Madison — are all in the Charlottesville area. They are not cheap to visit. Monticello, the one we were most interested in visiting is $25 per adult.  We weren’t $50 interested.  However, there are trails on and near the estate that you can access for free.  The Saunders-Monticello Trail is a 2 mile, mostly boardwalk, trail that runs along the parkway to the estate.   We hiked that trail to see  the Visitors Center and gift shop.  After that, we hiked a second trail for some views of the area.

(Side Note:  I hadn’t previously mentioned this, but our homeowners are allowing us the use of their Prius.  This is  awesome, as there is not much within walking distance of their home and public transportation is iffy for many of the sites.)

 Ash Lawn-Highland is the name of the official residence of James Monroe, the 5th president of the United States.  it is just down the road from Monticello.  It is a 535 acre estate.  While this was only $14/adult to visit, we decided to pass but hope to return in early August as it will be the site of the Abermarle County fair.

 

Also along the road we were traveling is the Carter Mountain Orchard, famous locally with apples, peaches, and Thursday evening music nights (mostly bluegrass).  It also has a great overlook of Charlottesville and the surrounding area.  


Another famous landmark along the same route is Michie’s Tavern.  This is a historic tavern with a restaurant serving Southern fare plus a gift shop and tours.  We again skipped the tours and food (having just had a lovely picnic at the orchard).  We did walk around the property as much as we could and perused the gift shop.

Finally, we veered off of the main road to check out Blenheim Vineyards which had been recommended to us by the homeowner of an upcoming house sit.  On the way, we passed the Trump Winery.  (You can decide whether or not we stopped there.  We’d tell you, but it would be claimed as fake news.) Blenheim Vineyards is owned by Dave Matthews — yep, that one.  He can do more than sing!  The wines were yummy .  We especially liked the whites, and he does the artwork for the labels for two of his wines each year.

One of our first days out in Charlottesville was spent walking the campus of the University of Virginia.  The university, opened in 1825, was built according to Jefferson’s vision of an “academical village.”  One of its unique characteristics is that it was built to include separate rooms for students rather than dorms.  Also, there were pavilions for faculty which included both classrooms and living quarters.  The university is still seen as one of Jefferson’s greatest architectural achievements.  It currently has about 21,000 students and 2,200 faculty.

The official mascot for the university is the Cavaliers; however, their unofficial nickname (though you see it all over, including on t-shirts and signs at the football stadium) is Wahoos, or Hoos for short based on one of their cheers.  



Bob and I are currently almost a week into our Charlottesville (locally C’ville), Virginia, house sit.  It is a beautiful area — lots of trees, very clean, and surrounded by former presidential estates, and lots of orchards, wineries, breweries, cideries, and distilleries. The city itself has a population of about 50,000.  It is the county seat of Abermarle County and is home to the University of Virginia.

(Side Note:  In local news, the city has recently changed the name of one of its downtown areas from Lee Square to Emancipation Square.  In addition, they have decided to remove their large statue of Robert E. Lee and this has sparked some contentious demonstrations from the KKK and the alt-right movements.  We missed the one in July and will miss an upcoming one in August, for which we are grateful.)

On a happier note, we met our homeowner family — mom, dad, and two precocious little girls on the eve of their departure for a Mexican vacation, part of which will include swimming with sharks.  We are caring for their 2 dogs and 6 indoor/outdoor cats (to the extent they want to be cared for) while the family is gone.

The two dogs are quite easy — a couple of walks, some food, and equal amounts of attention, and they are good.  Both feel free to let you know if they feel you are not paying attention. 

 

The cats are all mixed-breed rescues.  They come and go at their leisure with one pretty much living next door.  Some tend to be more inside and others happier outside.  Five are male and one is female.

There is also a cat named Miles that we caught a fleeting glimpse of on our first night here with the homeowners.  He was on his way back to the neighbors.  Per the home owners, he has apparently decided there is too much activity in the house with the family so has adopted the neighbor but comes back every so often to eat.

Downtown Charlottesville is lovely and has lots of reminders of its connections to 3 former presidents — Jefferson, Monroe, and Madison  — as well as reminders of its participation in the confederacy during the Civil War.  It has a lovel pedestrian-only mall with unique, local shops and restaurants.



Last Thursday, Bob and I left Lansing via American Airlines on what was to be a three-legged journey to Charlottesville, VA where we would pick up a rental car and drive for 3 hours to North Carolina to visit our 46th state.  Not an ideal itinerary but it got us the cheapest airfare.  Our estimated 2:00 arrival was pushed back about 4 1/2 hours when we had to add a 4th leg to the air journey when our flight from Charlotte, NC to Charlottesville, VA was cancelled due to an “operational decision” (pilot had a liquid lunch, perhaps?).  We got a free trip to LaGuardia and then onto Charlottesville.  We made a very quick transfer in LaGuardia, but Bob’s bag didn’t come with us.  It had to happen sometime, right?  Long story short, we arrived into Charlottesville at 6:30 pm to learn Bob’s bag was on a delayed flight for which they couldn’t give us an ETA.  We went onto Hillsborough, NC without the bag, as they promised to hold it for us until we returned the rental car on Saturday. We had a lovely time in Hillsborough without it.  (Bob is a much better trooper than I would have been!)

Since we really just had Friday and the Saturday morning, we tried to see as much of the little town as we could.  

We began the day by walking to, and then through, the Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area.  It was free to enter and had a number of nice walking trails, including one to the summit (only 350 feet) which is the highest point in Orange County where Hillsborough is located.

When we were done at the Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area we walked the relatively new River Trail into downtown.

 

After we walked back to our motel, we drove to the Eno River State Park to check out some of the trails there.

 

On Saturday morning on our way out of Hillsborough, we stopped at their weekly farmer’s market.  They were having a tomato fest. The market was small but cute — with lots of great produce.

After having explored the MSU campus, we had to give some time to the U of M as well, especially since Ann Arbor is so close to Lansing (about a 70 minute drive from where we stayed west of downtown — closer from East Lansing where the MSU campus is).  It is a much larger campus (more spread out) with a main and north campus area.  It lies adjacent to the vibrant and cute downtown which was prepping for an art festival on the day we were there.  Ann Arbor might be our favorite of the three cities based on our quick tour of each, but we were impressed with the cleanliness of each and the diversity and quality of local shops for cities with populations of about 100,000.  Also, lots of green — trees everywhere.

We started on the main campus and picked up a campus map to guide our tour.

 

We had a good (in the sense of long and hot) walk to the north campus to check out the Gerald R Ford library.  On the way back we found a fun hiking/biking trail near the Huron River and also checked out some of the Nichols Arboretum on campus.

Fun Ford Fact:  His birth name was Leslie Lynch King, Jr. His name was changed to his step-father’s name when his mother remarried.

A couple of snaps from the downtown area —

On our second day (first full day) in Michigan, we drove to Grand Rapids to visit the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum.  (Side note: This is the only presidential museum which does not also house his archives.  Those are on the U of M campus at Ann Arbor where he went to college. The museum is really well done and provides a good background on the times when he governed as well as how he ascended to the Vice Presidency (appointed by President Nixon, confirmed by Congress, when Spiro Agnew resigned) and the Presidency (assumed office when Nixon resigned).  Bob and I both left with the sense that while we may have disagreed with his view on some things he seemed like he was a man with a lot of integrity who took charge when the country really needed some honest guidance.  Of course, Betty is discussed as well and was (and continues to be) a role model in her own right.

We didn’t see much else in Grand Rapids, but what we did looked really nice.  We learned  that the area has benefited from the success of the Amway company (DeVos family) of which Betsy DeVos, current Education secretary is a member.  There is a DeVos Learning Center within the Ford Museum and an Amway Grand Hotel downtown.

Bob and I have now seen the presidential museums of Clinton, Bush (first), Reagan, Ford, Nixon, Johnson, and Kennedy.  Many more to go.

In between our Arizona and Virginia house sits, we decided to hit a couple of states that we haven’t yet visited as we’re a few states short of 50.  The first state we chose to visit was Michigan.  Based on some research and some input from one of my cousins (thanks Lyndsey!), we decided to base ourselves in Lansing but do a couple of day trips to Grand Rapids and Ann Arbor.  The three cities are pretty similar in size and relatively close together with Lansing being in the middle, so it worked well.  We have enjoyed our time here and are impressed with the greenness of this area (so many trees!) as well as the cleanliness of the cities.

Lansing is the capital of Michigan.  It has a population of about 115,000 which makes it the fifth largest city in MI.  Directly east of Lansing is the city of East Lansing, home of Michigan State University.  We spent our first afternoon in MI exploring the campus.  We were surprised to learn of its dairy program as well as its strength in botany and horticulture.  FYI — Botany is regarded as a broader pure science in regards to living plant organisms.  Horticulture is an applied science focused solely on edible and ornamental plant life.

 

We also spent some time touring the Michigan Capitol and the Michigan Hall of Justice, which houses the state Supreme Court.  Michigan was admitted to the Union in 1837 as the 26th state with Detroit as its capital.  The capital (seat of government) was moved to Lansing in 1847.  The current building is the second building in Lansing to serve as the Capitol (building) and was completed in 1879.  The Hall of Justice is a gorgeous new building, completed in 2002, as the headquarters of the state’s judicial branch of government.  It houses a great learning center focused on teaching students about the judiciary and has some great views of the mall.

 

Finally, we had a nice walkabout along the lovely River Trail which runs along the Grand River.