It's better at Bryce

Last weekend was John's birthday weekend! He's old now :)



As a special treat for the long weekend - I took him to the Shanandoah Valley in Virginia. A wonderful co-worker of mine lent us his cabin in the Bryce Resort area for the weekend. It was a fabulous place to stay!



It was a three story cabin with a wood burning stove and a hot tub! There was a huge field next door that the dogs loved running around in. The wood burning stove was heavenly and kept everything toasty warm! Can't you just smell the fire in this picture!



Since we had a big place all to ourselves - we invited some friends to join us! Our friends Tara and Tien decided to fly in for the day! Tien is a pilot - so this is somewhat normal for them :) They flew into the "airport" - which was really just a long landing strip in a field. I was even lucky enough to get a little ride!



The valley looked just amazing from the air. Look at all those colors!

Our other friends Tim and Lisa, and Kim and Payal arrived in time for lunch. After eating a bountiful feast including home made red velvet cake -(thanks Tara) - we went to a few vineyards for some wine tasting.

Here is Shenandoah Winery...


The setting was so beautiful. This was a more established vineyard and had lots of grapes bursting off the vine ready for picking. There were lots of goats frolicking around too! One was just in love with Tim. You can see him getting his hand nibbled on in the mosaic above.

After that windery - we headed to Wolf Gap Vineyard. This was a much newer vineyard and they were still getting their grapes established, but the wine was still tastey!

The best part to me was the view. It was so nice just to sit on their balcony and watch the sun sink into the west.



The next day we went to Mt Jackson and saw the Apple Festival on the main street


There were arts and crafts, antiques, apples (of course) and even a trout fishing pond where you could try your luck for ten minutes! These cute puppies were for sale. I had to keep reminding myself that these Rotties get BIG!!! - or else they would have come with me. Ah how I love puppy breath! I did come home with a Vintage Vogue Sewing book - still in the original orange box from the 60's! I can't wait to try some of the techniques.

We saw this sign there that totally cracked me up:


I think I need one for the yard! ahem...

Anyway - After the festival - we headed out to Shenandoah Caverns.

Caves always fascinate me. The formations here were no exception. On the road leading to the cave - there was a life sized Cootie! Remember that game?



After the caverns - we said goodbye to the rest of our friends and then decided to tool around the area some more enjoying the sights.

We came upon this amazing covered bridge! I was blown away by the craftsmanship of this thing. It was solid! Just look at those beams!



While there - this beautiful antique car rolled by. The perfect addition to the perfect setting.



Everywhere we went - the fall colors were just amazing! The leaves haven't really started to change where we live yet - but at the higher altitudes there - you could really see some amazing color!












A big thank you to our friends for an awesome weekend!



I'll end this extremely long post now and leave you with one of the sunsets we saw.