Tuesday Update

The time with my sister L is flying by. We are staying busy and having lots of fun (at least, I am!)

We arrived safely Wednesday evening and were met by Mark and Megan.

Thursday, we went into the college so I could work and catch-up with being gone. L spent the day working on school work. We stopped by the library on the way home and picked up some books and videos. I had a clogging meeting in the evening, so L decided to just stay home and watch a couple of the videos.

Friday morning, we ran over to Leesburg and found the tourist information center and picked up a whole bag of brochures about places to visit in the area. Friday afternoon, we spent it at the college. L spent time going through the brochures and I worked, in between talking about options for visiting sites.

Saturday morning, it was off to the zoo. We ended up inviting JM along for the day. We took the metro into DC and made it to the zoo around 10:00. We saw lots of animals! Highlights included pandas, tigers, cheetahs, lions, a variety of birds (including smews that were diving for their lunch), sponges, comb jellies, and gorillas. At 4:30, we headed home. We were tired, hungry, and a bit cold, but it had been a great visit. We stopped at Walmart to develop the roll of pictures L had taken during the day and ate at IHOP while we waited for the pictures.

Sunday was church in the morning (including breakfast as part of the service), a nap in the afternoon, and Awana in the evening.

Awana was held in the new church building for the first time! It was different, but much nicer! We had more room for the Sparks to have their handbook and story time (which made it more comfortable and quieter!). The only downside was a less controllable set-up for making sure the Sparks left with a parent and didn’t just walk out the door. But I don’t see that as a significant problem, just a matter of re-thinking and re-organizing how it is handled.

Monday, we trekked south and spent the day touring caverns. This is definitely the season to take a cave tour, if you don’t want to be bothered by crowds!
First stop: Luray Caverns. Sights included: Giant’s Hall, a large drapery feature, Dream Lake, Wishing Well, and Fried Eggs, a “shaggy dog,” an “ice cream cone,” and Pluto’s Ghost. There were about 11 in the touring group, plus the guide, Richard. We were disappointed to find out that the Garden Maze was closed, except on weekends, for the season. We did take the time to go through the Car and Carriage Caravan Museum. Where they had carriages and cars on display. L and I, not being inclined toward the history of cars and carriages, probably didn’t fully appreciate the display, but had fun trying to figure out where the 20 passengers and their luggage would fit in the carriage that should hold that much.
Second stop: Shenandoah Caverns. Sights included: “bacon,” Diamond Cascade, the Bishop, Rainbow Lake, and a number of other formations. This time, we were the only two on the guided tour with the guide, Robert. While waiting for the tour, we were able to go through the “Main Street of Yesteryear” museum. They had animated store window displays from DC and New York. They were quite interesting—Cinderella scenes, circus scenes, etc. They also had four animated bears that had been part of a Rose Bowl parade. There were more of the floats (~26) in the connected American Celebration on Parade museum, but we didn’t have time for that.