Our Weekend Away

This past weekend, Keith and I had the wonderful opportunity to take a weekend trip to the Shenandoah Valley. We planned this "weekend getaway" awhile ago. We wanted to do something fun and special to celebrate our 1st wedding anniversary and since we both love the Fall (hence, why we were married in November), a trip to the mountains in late October seemed to be just the right trip. Our plans included staying in a beautiful old Inn, taking a hot air balloon ride (which Keith had bought for me as a Christmas present in 2005), and going horse back riding. Unfortunately, due to the weather that Virginia had last week (three straight days of rain!), our plans had to be changed a bit (and due to the hot weather recently, the leaves weren't as colorful as we had hoped) but we made the best of it and still had a great time!

We left Charlottesville on Friday around 4:00pm (one of the perks of my job is that when the team leaves for an away game, we are free to go. Keith was able to get out of work early too so we could head out of town before rush hour started.) We drove straight to The Wayside Inn in Middletown, VA and checked in. Our room in the Inn was beautiful and very "homey". Keith and I both agreed that we felt more like we were staying in a room in someone's home than like we were in a hotel.





After checking in, we had a fabulous dinner at the Inn. Keith had a chicken dish and I had steak and shrimp. Of course, we also had dessert - Keith had cheesecake (his favorite!) and I had peach cobbler. It was a very good dinner, and the best part was that it was compliments of Keith's aunt and uncle (we paid for dinner with money we both got from them for our birthdays). It's always nice to have a romantic dinner with excellent food and even better when you don't have to pay for it!

We were supposed to take the balloon ride on Saturday afternoon, but we found out early that morning that it had to be cancelled due to it being too windy and too wet. We decided to change our plans a bit and spent the day in Winchester, VA instead. We walked around the Winchester downtown pedestrian mall, drank coffee and people-watched, and enjoyed the crisp fall air. We had an interesting run-in with a "crazy" lady outside the coffee shop. She was a middle aged woman, dressed a bit eccentrically, who was talking loudly as if someone was sitting right next to her. The strange thing was that she was all alone and talking to herself. At one point, she started waving (as if she were saying goodbye to someone) - except that no one was there. WEIRD! Fortunately, about that same time, Keith and I had finished our coffee and danish and were ready to get up and start exploring more of the mall. Timing is everything!

The only good thing about missing the balloon ride was that it gave us the opportunity to watch the UVA vs. NC State football game. Keith had researched (just in case the balloon ride was cancelled) and found out that there was a Buffalo Wild Wings in Winchester. We headed over there on Saturday afternoon in time to watch the game. He and I enjoyed a nice big booth - big enough for us to stretch out in, yummy food, and tasty drinks, but unfortunately the night was a bit tainted when the Cavaliers couldn't pull out a win.

On Sunday, we got to go horseback riding like we had planned. We chose to go to a stable that we had been at two years ago - Fort Valley Stable. The people there are really nice and the price is reasonable. We took a 1 1/2 hour guided tour through open fields and the mountainous forest. Keith's horse - Jeb - was the hungry one (he kept stopping to eat) and mine - Jesse - was the poopy one (he stopped 8 times! to let it all out!). We also saw four deer along our path and we found out interesting information about deer and horses (I was amazed at how the deer didn't run away and we got really close to them without them getting scared of us. Our guide, April, told us that it was because deer and horses are friends - they are both prey, not predators - so they trust each other. In other words, the deer are not afraid of the horses - and the horses' scent is stronger than human scent - so they do not run away).


All in all, it was a relaxing and fun weekend. Keith and I were able to spend valuable time together and it was nice to get away from town and celebrate the Fall season.