This Saturday, Dave and I joined the Anytime Fitness staff for a Halloween Fitness Field Day at the Manchester Lakes Park. Dave has held a membership to this gym for a while and we attend some events organized by its staff. Today, there were many fun activities such as sack races, tug of war, bobbing for apples, and more. Every participant had a chance to earn raffle tickets for prices either for participation in a game or in a costume contest. A Monster has arrived.
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Category: Travel
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We visited Virginia Safari Park 3 years ago and were really impressed with this unique place. My previous posts can be found here, here and here. Therefore, we decided to repeat this experience again while it was still nice and warm. In 2015, FamilyFun magazine named Virginia Safari Park a Top 10 Animal Attraction in the United States, based on a survey of 2,000 parents.
This is Virginia’s largest, and only drive-thru zoo! 3 miles of safari roads wind through the beautiful Shenandoah Valley countryside, where visitors can have a close look at the animals in a natural environment. Feeding animals from the car window is so much fun!
In addition to the drive-through safari, the park has a Village Walk-Thru that includes a small zoo and a Tiger Territory. For a hands-on or up-close experience, the village also has a petting area with farmyard animals, a kangaroo “walk-about,” a budgie adventure aviary, and a giraffe feeding station.
Category: Travel
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This weekend Dave and I had a great time at Virginia Beach, our favorite beach in the area. The weather was perfect, the ocean was warm and calm with some nice waves to ride the boogie boards on.
By the time we decided to book the hotel on the beach at Ocean City, they were all sold out. I guess, one week in advance is not enough time to get a hotel reservation there. This weekend was supposed to be very hot, so we made a decision to go to the beach anyway, just for the day. We were not disappointed. Our little “beach house” was very handy on the beach. 🙂
This year we decided to celebrate the 4th of July at the beach and spend a few days enjoying the ocean. We left early Friday morning and arrived at Virginia Beach in the afternoon. Many people went to Virginia beach for the 4th of July weekend so it was pretty packed. As you can see in the picture below, hundreds of people are swimming and relaxing along the beach.
This Saturday we went to check out the Occoquan park and historic Occoquan town. It is a nice and short 20 minute ride from our home. Occoquan Regional Park is a place of entry to several key hiking trails, including the Fairfax Cross-County Trail and Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail.
The boat launch and marina provide easy access to a day exploring or fishing the Occoquan River. The park offers various recreational activities such as batting cages, soccer fields, kayaking and numerous barbeque areas including gazebos. The river banks looked beautiful.
Category: DC Surroundings, Travel, Virginia
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This weekend Mount Vernon hosts the Revolutionary War Reenactment weekend. Dave and I decided to visit this event on Saturday, mostly because of the weather; it is supposed to rain all day on Sunday. We arrived at Mount Vernon in the afternoon and, after finally finding a parking spot, we walked through the Revolutionary War camp to see the battle reenactment.
This Saturday Dave and I decided to dedicate to visiting Theodore Roosevelt island. Located just south of Georgetown, the Island offers an excellent opportunity for city folk to enjoy the great outdoors. Theodore Roosevelt Island is a memorial to America’s 26th president, in recognition of his contributions to conservation. The large statue of Teddy is erected at the memorial plaza of the island.
Category: DC Surroundings, Travel, Virginia
Tags: AirForce Memorial, Iwo Jima Memorial, Roosevelt Island Comments off
Today we decided to visit downtown DC. There was the Blossom Kite Festival today, but the best part occurred in the morning, so we saw very little of it. The kite festival took place near the George Washington Monument, so we started from there. The weather was beautiful in the afternoon, so we enjoyed our long walk through the downtown DC to Chinatown and back. Here are some pictures of the kites.
Last time on our way back from Snowshoe, Dave and I stopped at Smoke Hole Gift shop, but didn’t tour the caverns. This time returning from Spring skiing at Silver Creek, we decided to actually take the tour.
The Caverns were made millions of years ago after the North American and African plates collided to create the Appalachian Mountains. According to the resort’s website, Smoke Hole Caverns is an active cave, accumulating 1 cubic inch of new deposits every 120 years. The Smoke Hole Caverns opened for public tours in 1940.
Some of the cave’s interesting formations include the world’s longest ribbon stalactite, genuine Crystal Cave Coral Pool, found in only one other cavern in the world, and the second highest ceiling of any cavern in the eastern United States.
Here is Queen’s Canopy, 13 million years old draperies, inside Smoke Hole Caverns.
