Late Start Saturday

Mid-week during our vacation, we got in touch with Mary's friend Barbara, who we had invited out for the weekend. She planned to drive out Friday night, but the storms held her up; she arrived at around 9am on Saturday.

I had hoped that this would be the day of the canoe float, finally, but we had just gotten started too late to fit that in. I had been in touch with two river outfitters during the week, Downriver Canoe Company in Bentonville and Shenandoah River Outfitters in Luray, and both said they sometimes run out of kayaks by 10am on spring weekends.

Instead, we decided to drive over to New Market for lunch at the Southern Kitchen - always a favorite. And since we would be on that side of the Massanutten ridge I had a few other activities in mind.

Our first stop after lunch was to take the short walk on the Storybook Trail to the Page Valley overlook. This is a great view from 1600 feet up or so across the valley to the ridge of Shenandoah National Park.

Somewhere along the line of the road in the foreground lies the Hawksbill Cabin, nestled almost at the beginning of the ridge in the distance.

Next, we drove through the GWNF, stopping to take a look at Passage Creek, swollen with rain, along the way. This picture is from a drive over there a few weeks back, when the creek was in similar condition.

Finally, up in Toms Creek, we visited North Mountain Vineyard. It had turned out to be a very nice spring day despite the continued threat of thunderstorms, which is just the way it is in Northern Virginia this time of year. We sat out on the deck and enjoyed a couple of glasses of wine and the cheese plate, watching people come and go.

It was a very relaxing time. I've said it before, but a couple of these vineyards remind me of Sonoma - especially this one and Linden. The Virginia wines, while they are always improving, aren't quite the consistent match to those in California, but the industry here is doing very well and you can find some very pleasant surprises in the vintages.