A Little Trip to a Great Fall...

Yesterday, 8/28, we took a short trip to Great Falls National Park in Great Falls, VA.  The park is about 30 minutes outside of DC just off Georgetown Pike (193.)  This is a great day trip for those of you living in and around the Washington metro area.  They have easy trails that are stroller and bike friendly; harder trails (but still not to hard) for the more adventurous and lots of open grassy areas with picnic tables and some grills if you just want to chill and get "away from it all."

By and far though are the three scenic overlooks of the falls!  Most of us think of the Potomac as a lazy, wide river that goes around/through DC and separates MD and VA.  For those of you who do not know, the low tide line on the VA side is the MD/VA border.

However, there is a wilder side to the Potomac and some of it can be seen at Great Falls.  The "falls" are not some spectacular, Niagara like point on the river, but are rather a short, narrow gorge with several smaller drops of perhaps 20-30 feet.  However, the power of the river can really be seen in this area and provides a contrast to the normally placid, slow moving river we are used to seeing.

Great Falls National Park is part of the National Park Service so it is pretty well kept.  There is an entrance fee...$5 per car or $3 per person for those on bikes.  Each entrance fee is good for 3 consecutive days so you can come back and not have to pay again if so desire.  That may be necessary if you should want to hike all of the trails and visit some of the outlaying sites.  Here's a link to the Park's website:  http://www.nps.gov/grfa/.

So, first thing you need to do is wonder down to the three scenic overlooks for the falls.  This is as close as you can get and the views are awesome!  Overlook 1 is the closest and Overlook 3 is the farthest away.  Lots of good views and picture taking opportunities at any of the three.

Once you've done the overlooks, there are several trails to walk/hike.  The Old Carriage Road trail is a wide, fairly flat gravel path that is bike and stroller friendly.  It is a good walk for families with young children or if you want to ride your bike on a wooded, shady path.  For the more intrepid hiker, there is the River Trail and the Ridge Trail.  The River Trail follows the river and so has you hiking over rocks and on narrow paths at times.  It is not a hard trail, but it is not one for really small children.  There are some really great views of the Mather Gorge and the Patowmack Canal.  The canal was built to move river boats around the falls.  It is pretty cool.  Some of the stone work for the locks is still in place.  I've posted some pictures below of the locks.  This is the trail that Pam and I took.  It was a nice workout and is around 3 miles long.  You end up on either the Ridge Trail (if you want to go even further down river) or you can circle back to the Ranger Station and parking lots on the Old Carriage Trail.

If you decide to do either the River or Ridge trails, I would advise a good pair of hiking boots (with ankle support.)  Some of the going is over rocks and can get a bit tricky for tennis shows or casual shoes.  If you are only going to go to the overlooks and/or hike the Old Carriage Road than any comfortable walking shoe will do.  There is a bit of climbing on the rocks at the overlooks, so be careful!  Also, bring along a second pair of shoes and a clean shirt/top and a towel.  You will appreciate being able to change socks/shoes/shirt/top when you get back from your hike/walk.

Great Falls is a fun day trip that a lot of us that have (or do) live in the metro DC area don't even know is there!  So get off the couch, put on your walking shoes and get out and see the sights!  You won't regret the time you spent.  Pam and I will be going back sometime soon.

Until next time....

Craig and Pam

Here are a bunch of pix:

A Walk in the Clouds...

Yesterday Pam and I headed up to Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.  This roadway was constructed within the park to show off the beautiful vistas of the Shenandoah Valley.  The entire drive is 105 miles long and has 75+ overlooks and scenic stops.  The Appalachian Trail runs through the park and many of the trails and hikes within the Park utilize sections of the Trail.

The weather was supposed to be partly sunny, but we didn't really see the sun at all.  However, we made the best of it and did manage to get some good views and shots with the cameras.  We started at the North end of that drive at Front Royal, VA.  The ride from Gettysburg was fairly easy and straight forward.  Just follow 15 South to Frederick.  15 and 340 South combine at Frederick and then split again about 6 miles outside of Fredrick.  Just stay on 340 South all the way to Front Royal and you will arrive at Skyline Drive.  Takes about 2 hours or so.  Also, you go right past Harper's Ferry (another great day trip, we will be going there later this year!) and Charles Town, WV.  If you like to waste your money gambling, there are several casinos in Charles Town.

Oh, and I almost forgot...Skyline Cavern is located in Front Royal as well.  We didn't go this time, but we will one of the times we go back.  I haven't been to this cavern since I was about 12 or so and I want to see it again.

Normally, entrance to Skyline Drive is $15 per car, but this weekend they were having a FREE weekend so we didn't have to pay.  The money is used to keep up the park so it really isn't that bad anyway.  We spent more than that at the gift shop so that made up for the entrance fee.  There are three or four places on the drive where you can buy gifts, some groceries and even burgers and gas.  A word to the wise though....you will pay premium prices for these items, especially the gas!

We drove from the northern entrance to about the 1/2 way point.  We turned around at Big Meadows which is at mile marker 52 from the start.  During the drive we stopped at just about every overlook we past.  Many of them provided awesome views and camera opportunities.  However, some of the higher overlooks we didn't stop because we were IN A CLOUD and you could barely see the road, much less anything else!  The weather wasn't cooperating, but we were still enjoying ourselves.  I will post some pictures below.

We bought several trail guides for about $2 each.  The ones we bought were: Short Hikes, Hikes to Waterfalls, Hikes to Peaks and Vistas and Easy Hikes on the Appalachian National Scenic Trail (within Shenandoah National Park.)  Our next visit will be to do some hiking and I can't wait.  The longest of the hikes is 6.4 miles and the shortest is only .25 mile!  Of course, they are also graded according to how much of a slope or drop is encountered during the hike.  Most of the trails are round-trip, meaning that you go out and come back on the same trail for a total of 6.4 miles (or whatever it is for each trail.)  Some of the shorter ones are circuit trips, where you walk a complete circuit (never doubling back over a previous section of the trail) to make the complete hike.  Some of the shorter ones can take several hours or even the better part of a day because of the slope or drop of the trail.

We decided at Big Meadow to call it a day.  It had really started to rain pretty good and didn't look to be letting up anytime soon.  So we headed down and left the Drive at RT 211 heading towards Luray and Warrenton.  We hopped over to 522 and followed that until it connected back to 340.  If you have the time it is just a short drive to Luray where you can go to Luray Cavern.  They have the "World Famous" Stalagpipe Organ.  Luray Cavern is pretty cool.  I've been there several times (most recently about 20 years ago) and it is always a cool thing to do.  Kids will love it!

We stopped at Cracker Barrel on the way home and had dinner.  We were famished!  We were enjoying the drive and views so much that we didn't eat lunch.

Despite the not optimal weather we still had a great time.  Pam had never been to Skyline Drive or Shenandoah National Park and we are both looking forward to going back when the leaves change and to do some hiking!

Till next time....

Craig and Pam

Here are the pix:

Sting Rays and Puffins and Sharks! Oh, my!

Yesterday, August 13, Pam and I visited the National Aquarium in Baltimore, MD.  Since it was so nasty outside, we decided to do something inside and Pam had never been to the aquarium, so off we went.

For those of you who don't know, the National Aquarium is not located in Washington, DC, but is actually at Harbor Place in Baltimore.  This is a great place to visit for the day!  Lots of shops and good eats.  Several old ships to see including the USS Constellation, one of the surviving "Tall Ships" from the American Fleet of the 18th/19th centuries.  There is also a submarine, the USS Torsk; the Taney, a US Coast Guard Cutter; LS116 Chesapeake, a light ship (like a lighthouse, only a ship!), and the original 7-foot Knoll Lighthouse that marked the entrance to the Patapsco River and Baltimore Harbor for 130 years.

There is also the Maryland Science Center (while I have never been to the center, it is supposed to be great fun for kids), Geppi's Entertainment Museum (this is fairly new, at least to me) and other things to do.  Also, Camden Yards, home of the Baltimore Orioles (GO O's!) and M&T Bank Stadium, home of the mighty Ravens are within a short walk.  I've seen games at both and they make a great family outing.

Okay, already, stop the sales pitch for Bal'mer and let's hear about the aquarium!!!

OK, hon, here goes:

The National Aquarium just plain ROCKS!!!  It can be a bit pricey for a family, but it is way cheaper than a day at one of the Disney parks!  We got tickets to see the aquarium, the 3-D show and the Dolphin show.  Total for two adults was about $52 dollars, and was well worth it!

We started out just following the displays and tanks with the fish, sharks, rays and such.  We learned a lot about the Chesapeake water shed, but also lots of other things as well.  Saw a lot of interesting fish (Google the Atlantic Guitarfish,  it is waaaaaay cool!)  There were lots of sharks and other fish to see.  We were lucky enough to be coming around when they fed the regular fish (we missed the sting ray feeding, damn!)  Divers in the water are feeding them by hand setting up great shots with a camera.  Of course, I forgot ours, so any shots I took were with my iPhone.  They are below.

We worked our way through the exhibits and then went over to the Dolphins and Jellies part of the aquarium.  We had missed the time for our dolphin show so we checked out the jellies.  They were really cool to see the different kinds and learn about them as well.  We even learned how a species native to the American Atlantic, had gotten into the Red Sea and devastated fishing.  We've heard of non-native species getting into American waters (remember the Snakehead?), but this was the first time I had heard of the reverse happening.  Really opens your eyes (and mind) to things happening in the other parts of the world.

Next we went through the Rain Forest exhibit.  If you love frogs, don't miss this!!!!  Lots and lots of frogs, including a bunch of examples of all of the poison dart species.  Really cool!

Lastly we went through the Australian section.  This was also worth the time.  There were lots of cool birds (mostly finches and doves) and lots and lots of turtles!!!  We loved the turtles!  They also have several freshwater crocodiles!

Of course we also made the obligatory stop by the gift store and bought way too much stuff...but hey, we were just like any other tourists!

Stay tuned for an update when I finally upload the pictures and a post of the next adventure we had today, August 14.

See ya soon!

Craig and Pam

Pix:

Good wine, good food, and the music was.....

well, we weren't really impressed.

We went over to Wrightsville, PA (in York county) to Moon Dancer Vineyards and Winery for their 6th Annual Reds, Whites and Blues festival.  We had a fun time trying some of their wines and eating some roast pork sandwiches and listening to some blues bands.  Here is their web site: Moon Dancer Vineyards and Winery.  Their next music festival features Reggae and is in early August sometime.

After yesterday's hike from hell (see our previous post...Hiking in Catoctin Mountain Park) we decided to have a more relaxed adventure to allow our bodies to recover.  So we headed out to Moon Dancer to try some wine and listen to some music.  The winery is pretty close to Gettysburg.  It only took us about an hour to get there.  Traffic wasn't bad so we enjoyed the ride up and back.

The facility they have at the winery is awesome.  Very nice building setup to accommodate folks indoors and out.  We were able to get a table on the patio under an umbrella so we had shade for most of the time we were there.  See the pictures below for some shots of the winery, the winos and a nice shot of the Susquehanna in the background.

They have some very nice wines.  I liked a semi-sweet white called Moon River White.  Pam liked a couple of fruity wines, Cisco's Peach and Murhphy's Blueberry.  She says if you really like blueberries, then you will love the Murphy's Blueberry wine.  Unfortunately it was TSO (temporarily sold out) so we didn't get a bottle.

We settled on a sweet red that we both liked called Malibu's Red.  Very nice and grapey taste.  Went real well with our roast pork sandwiches!  We had one or two glasses each while eating and listening to the band and just enjoying the day and each other.

Speaking of the band, we listened to two of them.  One was pretty good, nice sound and a good selection of songs.  The second one was good in their own way.  The music was tight and sounded really good, but we just couldn't enjoy the guy singing.  He was one of those blues singers who thinks that you are supposed to sound like you have a mouth full of marbles to be good.  Wasn't working for us.  The guitar player sang a couple and he was much better!  All in all they were tight as musicians, just need a different singer.  Of course, this is just our opinion and YMMV (your mileage may vary!)

So, another wine festival under out belts!  We had a very nice day together and found another winery with some product that we like and would recommend.  Can't wait for the next wine festival!

Until the next adventure....