A fun weekend in VA

This weekend Carl (with the red babies), my parents and I all hit the road from our respective houses and headed toward Abingdon, Virginia. My parents had about a 4-hour drive, and Carl and I each had about a 6-hour drive. My parents go to Abingdon about once a year. We have been with them once before, in 2005.

We had an amazing, wonderful, fantastic time!!

Friday, my parents got there early enough to see a play at the Barter Theater while they waited for the rest of us to arrive. Saturday morning, we headed out to The Bike Station to pick up our rentals and get shuttled up to the Virginia Creeper Bike Trail. We love it! This particular part of the trail we planned on riding is 17 miles, but it's mostly down the mountain. It's a rail trail, which is a former railroad track that has been turned into a bike trail. This provides for a smooth ride and some of the most beautiful scenery you can imagine.

We had so much fun biking. The trail has lots of bridges that go over these gorgeous mountain streams. Dad only had one wreck, which was a doozy, but he was fine. At the end, we stopped for lunch at their regular trail lunch stop.

That afternoon we had planned to go to the Virginia Highlands Festival, but the threat of rain and our own exhaustion took us back to the hotel room for a little while. We did go to the festival a little later and enjoyed walking around looking at some of the crafts and listening to the music. Mom and I bought some more hand-crafted wooden spoons and cooking utensils, dad got some very yummy-smelling handmade soap and a really cool hand-carved tree for the Lodge (their basement).

That evening we headed to the Barter Theater to see "The Who's Tommy" play. What a strange play. I mean, wow! It was really good though-- just odd! Carl and I had the front-row seats, which really gave us a different view than what my parents had! We got stepped on, sweat on, spit on, had props dragged over our feet, and had hairpins shot at us. It was pretty funny. :) We enjoyed seeing that but it would have been nice to all have seats together. Either way, I think it was funny for my parents to be able to see our faces and our reactions throughout the play as their seats were across the way.

Sunday, we went to one of my mom's and my favorite restaraunts (Cracker Barrel) for breakfast, and then headed back out to another part of the Creeper with the dogs to go for a little bit of a hike before we hit the road. It was so beautiful, and so much fun, and I am definitely glad we did it.

Sunday night, of course, brings Army Wives! Oh my gosh, my jaw is still on the floor after last nights' episode. We all love the show.... and, tomorrow I will write about how we have our very own Army Wives star in the family.....

Until then, enjoy these videos from this weekend! (you may have to hit pause and let them load all the way before watching them).