This year, we vacationed at a cabin in Luray, Virginia. It was about halfway between Johnstown and Christiansburg (where Jake lives). Unfortunately, Amelia wasn’t able to join us this year as she was doing clinical rotations for vet school. Given that, Jake invited one of his friends, who was able to visit for 2 days. I also only took Ralphie because I only had room for one dog in the car. So, poor Tilly missed out and had to go to the kennel for the week.
It was a pretty laid-back vacation, just how we like it. We did go out and do a couple of things, though. On Monday, Jake and I visited Luray Caverns. It was quite impressive! The place is very touristy and we visited on one of their slower days, but it was still crowded. The temps were in the 100s most of the week (Thursday was the only decent day, temperature-wise), but it was nice and cool in the caverns. There are a bunch of other things to do at Luray Caverns, but the only other thing we checked out was the Car & Carriage Caravan Museum. They had a nice collection of old vehicles.
On Wednesday, the three of us went into town. We stopped in two stores, but a lot of places were closed. I didn’t find any mementos for myself, but Jake bought a few items for Amelia.
On Thursday, Jake and I visited Luray Zoo, which is a rescue zoo. That’s kind of a neat concept, right? They have one of the largest venomous snake collections on the East Coast. For some reason, Facebook keeps showing me snake videos (probably because I keep watching them) so I’ve developed some knowledge about them over the past few months. I got to see my favorite snake species, a Gaboon Viper, at the zoo, so that was pretty cool.
Other than that we just hung out. The guys played their guitars a few times, so it was like having a free concert at the cabin! I read, colored in my coloring book, and worked on a puzzle. Jake was a little cocky about the progress we were making on it and we ended up having to stay up until 12:30 am to finish it on the last night. To add insult to injury, the puzzle was missing 5 pieces. It was not a new puzzle–someone gave it to me–but that was disappointing.
We didn’t get to spend as much time outside as we normally would, due to the temperature. I did take Ralphie for walks first thing each morning and again after supper. There was a neat pond filled with lily pads that we went to multiple times. Thanks to walking through the woods, I ended up with 3 ticks (that I know of) this week. I don’t think any of them were attached very long, but ick. We had fires almost every night, too. The week went so fast. I was not ready to come back when it was over. But, I got a bonus Jake day (sort of). He returned to Johnstown with me to pick some stuff up and stayed the night. He went to visit my parents this morning and he’s supposed to return to Virginia today. I imagine I won’t see him again until the holidays, but I guess they’ll be here soon enough.
Time to start planning for 2025!
