Driving to Shenandoah National Park, Virginia

Shenandoah National Park was on our radar for this trip.....if it worked out......and it almost didn't. When we were in Ithaca, we talked about coming here, but there was that darn heatwave, which is why we went to Lake Canandaigua. This meant that we would potentially be in Shenandoah National Park over Labor Day weekend, which means lots of people (any weekend at a national park is busy, a 3-day weekend even busier), and could we even get accommodations given that we were looking for them only four days before a possible arrival?

It was the morning of our wine tasting when we were having this conversation and Suzanne spent quite a bit of time looking for accommodations in the park ~ being in the park would make getting to the trailheads early in the morning (our preferred time to hike) that much easier.  There was no availability, so she looked outside the park. Nothing really floated out boat, so we tabled it and went on our way. On our drive, Suzanne looked again for any hotel openings in the park and - yay! - one opened up, so we jumped on it and made our reservation. 😀

So we were up at 6am and on the road by 6:45am for a long drive today. We stopped along the way at Rotsell's Family Restaurant and almost did not go in - even though there were great reviews online, there was no one in their parking lot and two "For Sale" signs in their windows. But we were hungry so in we went.......

....and it was great! The food was excellent and the waitress really nice. We (okay, Suzanne) asked about the "For Sale" signs - apparently her sister owns the place and 20 years ago in a nasty divorce agreed to sell the restaurant and once sold, give half the proceed to her ex-husband. So the restaurant has been "for sale" since, but not really. 😆

While this conversation was going on, another customer - clearly a regular - came in and started talking about the awesome fish fry they have here on Friday nights. So it was a lovely time and we are glad that we came here for breakfast - it was a very small town feel (which is nice for a short while). Oh, the other customer seemed to have driven his tractor to the restaurant for his breakfast.......
 

 
We arrived to Shenandoah National Park around 2pm......

 

 Unfortunately the smog/haze did not help the views....

 ...made it to the lodge around 4:30pm......

 ...and our room.....which while cute was a bit more rustic than we anticipated (i.e. no WiFi or AC)......however we will take "in the park and rustic," over "out of the park and a long drive each day" anytime. 

 

We had an early dinner discussing which hikes to do tomorrow - the next day was going to be the warmest, but driest, and worked on our Junior Ranger books (over gin & tonics)!

 

We tried to go to the 9:30pm Ranger Talk on Astronomy, but it was cancelled due to lightening. Bummer. At least Brad matched the Welcome Bear! 😀

 

Lake Canandaigua, New York

Today was a super mellow day ~ after having breakfast in town, we hung out at the hotel (while it poured outside) doing laundry and napping. We finally took a walk late morning and checked out the boathouse again.....

 ....took a drive around the area, walked the town's main street....

 

  .....chilled out some more, had dinner at a nearby pub, and hung out by the hotel while a band played until a thunder and lightening storm stopped the festivities......

 

Yep - we know it sounds boring, but it was a perfect day!😎

 

 

 

 

 

Driving to Lake Canandaigua, New York

While we were in Ithaca and talking about where to head next, we thought about starting to head south. However there was a huge heat wave for the next few days (in the area we thought about going), so we decided to spend a couple more days in the finger lakes region of New York and headed to Lake Canandaigua for a couple days. On the way, we drove (a bit out of the way) to Rochester, NY to see where Suzanne lived when she went to graduate school there in the early 90's. She lived on the top floor of this converted (at the time) 5-apartment house and loved the area. 

 We arrived at the hotel late afternoon......

 

 ....and after getting settled, we wandered along the lakefront.....

 ...saw these three older gentlemen jammin'.......

 

 ....some geese.....

 ...and what we thought were floating houses until we chatted with a woman the next day who said that they were simply boathouses - no sewer and no potable water - one selling for nearly $300,000 earlier this year! 😮