Along Route 340 in Northern Virginia

We just got back from a weekend in Northern Virginia to meet up with much of my family, and not only did we have a beautiful time…but this is some beautiful country, too.

My beloved first cousin, Hana, graduated from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA this last Saturday, and considering she’s the first baby bump I ever felt (at the age of 17), this was a pretty emotional weekend. We’re both incredibly proud of her, and thrilled that she has the spirit of an adventurer, pursuing charitable projects both overseas and here in the U.S.

To be there for the weekend, Adam and I took a Thursday redeye on American Airlines from LAX into Dulles International Airport (IAD). On a whim, I’d picked up No-Jet-Lag, a homeopathic drug at Whole Foods that promised miraculous results…and worked pretty well. After picking up our rental car and taking a short nap at my Aunt Kari’s (Hana’s mom) in nearby Reston, we were awake enough to drive a healthy stretch of Shenandoah National Park’s Skyline Drive ($15 US for a 7-day park pass), which offers one gauzy, green vista after another.

We had the Skyline Drive to ourselves quite a lot

Table for two at the restaurant in the Skyland Lodge

In Spring, best to slow down along the Skyline Drive; deer come to the roadsides to forage

It's good to get out of the car now and again along the way

The rest of the weekend, not so much with the couples’ travel. But, it was a heck of a lot of fun.

Aunt Kari had booked two rentals for our family in Massanutten, a ski/water park resort area about 15 minutes west of Harrisonburg. Adam, my brother, Mike, and I stayed in a one-bedroom condo with a pull-out sofa and a view of the surrounding mountains ($290 for two nights); 1/2 mile away, a big group that included my parents stayed in a cozy two-story house on a wooded cul-de-sac. It was fun to have what amounted to a slumber party with Mike, who lives in Maryland, has three young kids, and we don’t see nearly as much as we’d like.

After Saturday’s graduation on the tree-lined quad at JMU, many of us hit the Harrisonburg Farmer’s Market and saw baked goods, plants and Mennonites on display. We caught up over the iced tea of the day at Earth & Tea Cafe, poked around local arts and crafts at Oasis Gallery, and then met for a stellar lunch of black bean burgers, parmesan orzo and cucumber mojitos at the wildly painted, brick-walled cafe/concert venue, Clementine.

One of Harrisonburg's finest old houses is an inn called the Joshua Wilton House

Graduation lunch at Clementine: Mike and Dad are 2nd and 3rd from the back left, my dad's next to my Aunt Lisa, I have my hand on Mom's shoulder; on the couch, Hana's sitting with her dad, my Aunt Kari, and Larry's mom

Sunday was Mother’s Day, the first I’d been with my mom in ages.  On this chilly and windy day, she, my dad, Mike and we headed way underground to one of the area’s biggest attractions, Luray Caverns ($21-23 US per adult).  The public portion of this massive, well-paved cave system (the path, my dad happily quipped, was “designed for fat people”) takes a little over an hour to wander through. Cavern highlights range from a cathedral/wedding room with an echoing organ to broken stalagmites that look like two fried eggs, but our collective favorite was Dream Lake, a shallow pool that offers a surreal mirror reflection of the stalactites above.

Dream Lake at Luray Caverns

Two (famous) broken stalagmites look like fried eggs

The pipe organ in the caverns' cathedral/wedding room

After a lunch of what probably isn’t “The Best Burger in Virginia” (but was nonetheless served with a smile) at the adjacent, 19th-century town of Luray’s Artisans Grill (lunch for two, about $20) we parted ways with lots of hugs; Adam and I took the shorter but gorgeous way back to Dulles along Route 340 to Route 66 (about two hours). We passed red-roofed farmhouses and paddocks full of horses, gurgling rivers and yawning swaths of low mountains thickly covered with trees.

The reddest barn roofing we've ever seen

Route 340 heading north

I often wish I lived close enough so that family weekends like this one were a far more common occurrence, especially because as I sat on the 5-hour plane ride home I read an article on the moral dilemma of flying; according to the writer, the single worst thing anyone can do for the environment is, well, fly in a plane — even if it’s to be with their family. So for now, I’ll keep recycling, make a lot of calls back East…and look for a great carbon offset program.

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See also
TWT Travel Binder: Virginia
A Spring Drive Through the American South – Part One
A Spring Drive Through the American South – Part Two
A Spring Drive Through the American South – Part Three
A Spring Drive Through the American South – Part Four

Travels With Two