July 30, 2002

Dear Folks,

There are numerous links in this email that will take you to pictures you will hopefully enjoy seeing. If you don’t see links let me know.

Terri and I returned from a well-deserved two-day sanity break in the country. As you probably know Rosie is having fun with Ben and Cassandra in Knoxville this week. We often try to get away to do a couple’s thing when Rosie is away for a while. Alas, our vacation was only two days. We could have easily spent a week. We both agreed we need more couple time like this to putter around, explore and do things. The grind of work and child rearing is not very soul satisfying.

We didn’t venture too far. We figured the Shenandoah Mountains was only 90 minutes away and there has to be some bed and breakfast there with nice rooms and Jacuzzis. Thanks to the wonders of the GoogleÒ search engine it was pretty easy to locate a dozen or so places. We chose the White Fence Bed and Breakfast in Stanley, Virginia because they had all the right accommodations and they also had a web site with pictures. I’m surprised more B&B’s don’t have web sites.

We didn’t leave until 1:30 PM or so on Sunday. The heat and humidity have been rather icky around here lately and we hoped it would be more pleasant in the mountains. In truth though it was just as nasty in the country, although hopefully less polluted. The B&B is located about six miles south of Luray, Virginia in the town of Stanley. Our directions were solid and we approached from US-340 from the north. The White Fence Bed and Breakfast was easy enough to spot since it was named appropriately. Tom and Gwen are the proprietors. Both look retired and in their sixties and apparently had run a B&B in Michigan before taking over this B&B eighteen months or so ago. Tom showed us to the Ivy Cottage, our home away from home. It was a largely and lovely cottage furnished with exquisite taste and absolutely beautiful. Tom was helpful enough to get us a list of movie showings at the cinema in Luray. There was a 7 PM show of “K-19: The Widowmaker” we wanted to make. But first we needed to get some dinner. Our cabin came with a book jammed full of menus of local restaurants that was very useful. Most of the restaurants seemed to be centered near Luray so we headed back that way.

Unfortunately Luray is one of these cities that roll up the sidewalks early, particularly on Sunday nights. We wandered from restaurant to restaurant to find them mostly closed or opening too late for us. We hesitated to go into the Brookside Restaurant out of town, our first choice, because of the large number of motorcycles in the parking lot ...call us prejudiced if you must. Eventually because time was running out we ended up at the Luray Pizza Hut where we had dinner for $12 … what a deal … it was buffet night. This was hardly fine dining. In fact the restaurant was rather gross with lots of flies and the tables were largely not wiped down. I think a health inspector would have closed the place. Afterwards we staggered out into the sun and the heat and wandered up and down Main Street and took refuge in a small ice cream parlor where we waited until the theater opened. In Luray there are no matinees. There are two shows an evening and that’s it.

Luray is mostly known for Luray Caverns. The caverns are outside the town. Luray itself is a rather sleepy small town of 5,000 or so that has definitely seen better days. There were lots of closed businesses and boarded up buildings. For some reason most of the houses had tin roofs … perhaps that was the standard fifty years or more ago when they were constructed. Lots of houses were in need of major repair. But it was also a place where residents seemed to hang out on their porch in spite of (or perhaps because of) the heat. It is quite hilly and there appears to be a large statue of Stonewall Jackson in the center of town.

The movie theater was quite an experience! There were five theaters in what at one time must have been one modest sized theater. For the longest time we couldn’t find our theater for our show because the doors weren’t well marked. Finally we found this door and opened it and that was our theater. There were exactly 39 seats in the theater. For a while we wondered if we were going to be the only patrons, but another couple finally arrived who were also visiting that we chatted with. The movie did not start on time and for a while we wondered if the projectionist had neglected to turn on the film.

K-19 was a really good film though, and well worth the $6 each we paid to see it. It stars Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson, both of whom have been in various Star Wars movies. Harrison Ford perhaps doesn’t have the most convincing Russian accent. There is plenty of tension and plenty of issues associated with poor quality control of Russian nuclear submarines. In short … no reason to skip the movie! In fairness though it wasn’t the best submarine movie I’ve ever seen. If you haven’t rented Das Boot (perhaps renamed “The Boat”) go rent it. I personally think it feels more authentic with subtitles, so I recommend Das Boot. It was perhaps the scariest movie I have ever seen because it was so true to life. Who needs ghosts and goblins to get scared when real life during World War II was far scarier.

After the movie we ambled back to The Ivy Cottage and soon found ourselves soaking in the Jacuzzi and doing the sorts of things you would hope married couples would do frequently when children are far, far away and privacy is assured.

Monday was our adventure day. Unfortunately a check of The Weather Channel said record heat was expected. Undaunted we decided first to head across the mountains and try to climb Old Rag Mountain. I had wanted to do this for as long as I’ve been a Washingtonian but never got around to it. We had heard it was an easy climb and we were prepared to maybe spend an hour or two getting to the summit figuring it was perhaps like nearby Sugarloaf Mountain in Maryland. We had bottled water and hiking shoes and we knew we’d get hot and sticky and sweaty. There is a $10 fee to climb (there is a self service station) and then we had to wander up a paved road half a mile or so until we found the trail. It was a good thing we read the trail signs because apparently the hike to the summit and back is about five hours. In other words we were not remotely prepared for such an endeavor since Terri’s feet were already hurting. In fact with the heat and humidity we were already soaked all the way through.

Through the trees though we heard the unmistakable sound of children at play … in the water no less. We ventured down a steep embankment to the side of a creek and found a couple dozen kids from a nearby day camp and counselors having the time of their lives, jumping over rocks and into narrow pools of spring fed water. Yes, it was a sort of old fashioned swimming hole that largely doesn’t exist anymore. I don’t know how those kids stayed out of the hospital. The rocks were slippery and I slipped on one. But we knew we had to take Rosie here sometime. It looked a lot more fun than climbing the mountain anyhow. Unless Terri does some serious training I doubt I will ever get to the top of Old Rag Mountain with her. But I’m thinking if Mike or Tom comes out sometime perhaps I could do it with them. Or maybe I could con my friend Lisa into going, although by the time we got back she would probably never forgive me.

On our way back to the car we were caught in a sudden storm that thoroughly soaked us. However since we were already thoroughly soaked with sweat there was no downside to it and it actually cooled us off a bit. In addition we kept coming across schools of butterflies that delighted and amazed us … we just don’t see much of them in the suburbs anymore. We headed back to the Thorton Gap with the intent of getting on Skyline Drive. We stopped at the day camp (which was also a B&B) and got information. It too is a lovely place on the edge of the piedmont and the mountains with acres of uninterrupted meadows and forests behind it. We’re thinking of maybe doing a family thing there someday. We also stopped at a fresh fruit stand and got some local apples and peaches.

We had never really done Skyline Drive before, despite being so close to it. But we both had an interest to try a slow rambling drive on it. So we got on it heading south at Thorton Gap (where U.S. 211 crosses it) and made a slow journey full of frequent stops at various lodges and scenic overlooks. The big lodge was the Skyland Lodge, which was also at about the highest point on the drive. The skies were very hazy, of course, but at that altitude there were winds and lower temperatures so we didn’t need the AC. We also stopped at Big Meadows featuring meadows that lived up to its name. These meadows were not natural, the signs informed us, but still breathtaking somehow perhaps because they seemed otherwise untouched by man. There were numerous places on Skyline Drive where you could see no sign of civilization. We got some rates for lodging at the Skyland Lodge and thought it would be a good place for a Hamill family vacation. There is just tons of hiking around there and amazing vistas all over the place. There is something to be said for having a cabin that high up in the mountains.

Eventually we came out on U.S. 33 that runs west toward Harrisonburg, near where we spent our honeymoon. We found U.S. 340 and approach Stanley and our B&B from the South this time, after passing over the Shenandoah River a number of times. Stanley turns out to be a pretty sizeable town, but we were not aware of it before because we were staying on the edge of it. The air seemed clearer and not quite as stinking hot, but we smelled pretty rancid. Our first order of business when we returned to our cottage was to get into the shower and turn into decent human beings again. Determined not to do the Pizza Hut for dinner again we made reservations at a high rated but expensive local restaurant at the Jordon Hollow Farm Inn. The food was indeed quite excellent but entrees ran from $15-30 each so it was not for the budget conscious. For a while we were the only ones there. Well, it was Monday night after all. But by 7 PM a couple other people arrived so we didn’t feel so alone. We could look out into a pasture and watch a number of mares run by.

Last night we watched Evita on the VCR in the room and soaked in the Jacuzzi again. Terri had some minor problems that slowed her down. There was a bee of some sort in the room that stung her on the finger. Fortunately she did not have the expected allergic reaction. And some black fly or something bit her on the noggin and caused a fair amount of localized swelling and a headache. Cold compresses and Tylenol helped both problems.

Today we had a leisurely trip back home, taking Skyline Drive from the Thorton Gap up to Front Royal, where it ends. The weather was still nice today so we made more stops for pictures and general gawking before running home.

We can’t recommend our B&B too highly. We had these wonderful gourmet breakfasts and being the only guests there midweek we were truly pampered. The grounds are lovely and our cottage was ideal; Terri was truly sad to leave. The rooms were immaculate and the beds super comfortable. We slept very well. We got to know Tom and Gwen, and Terri even helped Gwen a bit with some computer questions she had. The grounds and the facilities are very well maintained. They have poured a huge amount of time and money into the place and it shows.

Otherwise it will be a long and quiet week before Rosie returns on Sunday.

Love,

Mark