Recently attended Keith Urban’s concert at the Patriot Center in Fairfax, Virginia. Grammy Award winner and American Idol judge Keith Urban brought his “Light The Fuse Tour 2013” with Little Big Town and special guest Dustin Lynch. It was such an enjoyable evening. The concert was absolutely wonderful. Keith and his band put on a great show. He is such a talented guitar player and a good looking guy. Here is his Fuse poster below.
The evening before Thanksgiving we spent at historical Gadsby’s Tavern in Old Town Alexandria. Gadsby’s Tavern is a historic landmark dating back to the 18th century. The tavern was frequented by George Washington Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, and James Monroe. The restaurant has been restored to maintain the appearance of more than 200 years ago.
Founded as a seaport in 1749, Alexandria has always greeted visitors from near and far. Taverns, like Gadsby’s, provided travelers with much needed rest, food and drink, the latest news, a place to make business deals and to hold political discussions, and a variety of entertainment.
Every time I change trains at the King Street Metro station, I wonder what is inside of that beautiful memorial and that I need to visit it. It took a while, but Dave and I finally picked a day and scheduled a tour.
The George Washington Masonic National Memorial is a Masonic building and memorial dedicated to the memory of George Washington, the first President of the United States and a Mason. This magnificent structure also serves as a research center, library, community center, performing arts center and concert hall, a banquet hall and meeting site for local and visiting Masonic lodges.
The tower is fashioned after the ancient Lighthouse of Alexandria in Egypt. The 333-foot (101 m) tall memorial sits atop Shooter’s Hill, a lofty peak in mid-Atlantic terms, at 101 Callahan Drive in Alexandria, Virginia.
The Safari Village is a ten acre walk-thru area and a nice addition to the Safari drive-thru. Visitors can buy some food at the gift shop and feed many animals and their babies in the patting area. They also can buy feed sticks and feed these colorful birds, as they perch on your hand. The safari village has a nice variety of animals and I posted pictures of some of them here.
This weekend, the last weekend of the Shocktober event, Dave and I visited the renowned Paxton Campus to experience a paranormal recreation of what has been deemed to be truly haunted by spirits. The event offers four chilling attractions across the property’s 17 acres: The Paxton Manor, The Haunted Well of Souls, The Funhouse and The Last Ride, each with its own frightening twist.
The Safari ride was about an hour long, so Dave and I took a lot of pictures. In Part 1 I posted the pictures from the beginning of our ride and this post contains the rest of the pictures from our safari adventure. There is not much to say about the ride. I am sure, that most of the animals are well known to everyone. The main actions that happened there were driving slowly through the park, feeding the animals and having FUN! Here is a beautiful Eland Antelope in the picture below.
Virginia Safari Park is a wonderful 180 acre drive through adventure. The Park is divided into two sections: The Safari and The Village. This post is about our experience in the Safari Park, which is 3 miles of winding roads and has hundreds of free roaming animals that we could see or feed from our vehicle.
There are many baby animals! Virginia Safari Park has over 100 babies born each year. We were ready to see every one of the herds of Zebra, Bison, Elk, Antelope, Deer, Ostrich and Llamas. Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!
A tour of the caverns was part of the package we got from the Natural Bridge Hotel, so Dave and I drove the short distance from the hotel to see them. While sculpting the Natural Bridge 3 million years ago, nature also worked on the Natural Bridge Caverns, and is still at it in the East coast’s deepest “live” caverns.
Open seasonally March through November, visitors enjoy the Natural Bridge Caverns tour. Guests descend more than 34 stories deep within the Earth to get to the magnificent natural display. The caverns highlights are the Colossal Dome Room, Mirror Lake, Wishing Well Room and the Canyon Room.
Next to the Natural Bridge is a Wax Museum and Factory Tour. The Museum offers a three dimensional trip through Shenandoah Valley history, featuring legends of the Revolution and the historical generals of the Confederacy. The Museum displays wax figurines of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, confederate soldiers, General Lee, Daniel Boone and 170 other life-like figures in narrated historical scenes.
A theatrical presentation of Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, “The Last Supper” is offered at the end of the tour. The tour also includes a trip through the wax museum factory to see how these figures are made. The Natural Bridge Wax Museum in VA is the only museum that ships its figurines and statues worldwide to other museums and collections. Here is one of the scenes in the museum.
Cedar Creek Trail is a nice pathway leading under the natural bridge and up the creek to other attractions. This Trail begins with the walk down Cascade Creek and ends about a mile later at Lace Falls. The Natural Bridge and Monacan Village are on the front part of the trail. Along the path guests can stop by the Monacan Indian Village, stroll to Saltpeter Cave and Lost River, watch Lace Waterfalls, where Cedar Creek tumbles down 50 feet. The trail is fairly flat, but does start to get a little uneven past the Monacan Village with slight hills. Cedar Creek Nature Trail is open daily from 9 a.m. until dark. The length of the trail is just under a mile.
