Fall in Charlottesville

Everything seems better in the fall. The dreaded Virginia humidity and heat of summer gives way to cool breezes and beautiful temperatures. There’s football. The leaves change. The kids go back to school. Coffee tastes more wonderful. In all of the places...

Get Your Pumpkins — at Belvedere

There are plenty of places near Charlottesville where one can pick a pumpkin. Places such as Carter Mountain Orchard, where I took the kids last Friday for apple picking, Chiles Peach Orchard, Greenfield Fall Fest near Ruckersville, and Hess Greenhouse‘s Back Home on the Farm in Harrisonburg where my daughter’s kindergarten class went last year for a field trip. But based on a recommendation last year and a Groupon for $15 season passes, I decided to take a trip to Belvedere Plantation in Fredericksburg, VA.

Staunton’s Frontier Culture Museum

Staunton’s Frontier Culture Museum is a tribute to the first colonial Virginia settlers and is organized on a circular trail with tiny houses / villages representing different colonial era settlers. In the words of the museum’s website, “To tell the...

Luray Caverns and Skyline Drive

Growing up in Northern VA, I have many memories of trips to Luray Caverns… I’ve probably been there between 7 to 10 times, but not since maybe 1990. I was really excited last weekend when my wife and I were trying to think of things to do and she mentioned...

George Washington Birthplace

As I prepared to write this blog post, I realized that my father has pretty much lived and worked in all the same places as George Washington, only in opposite order. While a soldier stationed at Ft. Belvoir in the mid-1970s, he lived just a few miles from Mount...