For Spring Break, 2023 I was immensely excited to be accepted on the WOODS outdoor club's trip to Los Padres and Joshua Tree, California.
I previously went on WOODS fall break expedition to the Smokey Mountains and had loved it.
A bonus was that there would be an option to go backpacking on the second week of the spring break trip! I backpacked before and have been longing to do it again ever since. I couldn't wait!
...But then...my U.C. flared up. After some difficult, but grounding conversations, I had to withdraw from the WOODs trip. I was BUMMED.
But Alix didn't let me stay bummed for long. In fact, he was discussing taking a spring break trip together even before the Woods trip was announced. So, he excitedly jumped to the planning boards to convince me to go to Portland, ME with him.
I told my Nana about my new spring trip plan. She thought it was a fabulous idea! Being the angel she is, she offered to let us use her timeshare as a graduation gift.
But, her timeshare didn't have anything available near Portland. So we looked elsewhere, with an objective to near a national park (I may have still been a bit butt hurt about the CA hiking trip). In this search, we stumbled across Massanutten Resort, just a short distance from Shenandoah NP! With that, we booked our stay and got ready for our first couple's vacay!
On the drive down we did our typical long drive fiasco. Me being the passenger princess playing youtube videos about 'Nerdy' lore for us to both listen to. It was about a 5 hour drive and our first stop near our destination was of course, our favorite, Barnes and Noble.
After Barnes and Noble, we checked into the Resort. At check-in we may have made an "oh-oh" in agreeing to sign up to go on the timeshare tour in exchange of a supercool packet of 'freebies'. Luckily for us, the tour guide saw we were young college kids. Being in college-debt herself, our tour-guide understood that she wasn't going to convince us to buy into the timeshare. So she sped up the tour. At her request, we told the next representative that she gave us the full tour and while impressed we simply could not afford a timeshare. We got lucky and safely got away with a quick tour and our goody package (DISCLAIMER-I do not recommend testing this luck). The main hit of this package included discounted coupons for our next day's expedition: Luray Caverns!
In my research on the top attractions in Massanutten, VA, Luray came up time and time again. After visiting I could clearly see why. Luray's structures were beautiful and spectacular! Having an Earth Science minor, I may have also nerded out about every stalactites and stalagmites in this karst environment.
After admiring Luray Alix and I explored the car museum and toy museum next door.
While the Caverns were the star of the show on our first full day's outing, the museum stole the show the next day.
More specifically this famous Crop Duster BLEW us away on day 2. Oh, and the Quail! The rest of the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center was pretty cool too... but that quail tho.....
We spent the rest of our days exploring quaint towns. Including Charlottesville and Staunton. We had so much fun stepping inside every bookstore, toystore, and antique shop in our way. Oh and we also fed ducks (sadly no footage from living in the moment). Then we would go back, cook dinner, have some VA blueberry wine and cuddle with a show. Yes, Alix and I are apparently an old couple. But that's the best kind of love right? lol.
Mom even stopped by for a round of Mario Party and some delicious Thai food! Before continuing down to North Carolina to see my brother swim.
The Thai place was a Victorian-styled bed and breakfast. It was so funny and sweet because the owner didn't realize the time change with daylight savings and that her restaurant should be open. She quickly went above and beyond and cooked and served us as well as sitting down and having a sweet conversation with us!
Okay, okay. I know what you're thinking. "But Bri... what about the whole point of being near a national park?
To be fair, I was so excited and did a bunch of research into what seemed like awesome hikes...But I didn't quite realize just how cold it would be up in the mountains.
Our first (and only) hike was a sunrise hike. The snow and sky was beautiful and the wind serene. But after a few wrong turns and the growing breeze I eventually started to falter and we had to go back. As soon as I got in the car I broke down crying because I thought I was dying from hypothermia because I couldn't feel my heart and had immense chest and head pain. But after blasting the car's heat and dethawing we laughed off how dramatic and a baby to the cold I can be (my WOODs nickname was bundle baby fossil hunter because I am cold all the time and like fossils lol).
And remember when I mentioned I had a flare up? It must not have been just a severe flare-up since Alix caught a stomach bug shortly after. So we decided to take the rest of the vacation easy and to come back to Shenandoah NP during the warm months.
We did however make super quick pit-stop at Harper's Ferry and Gettysburg on the drive home!
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