We grabbed some breakfast sandwiches and hit the road around 7. It was about a 2 hour drive from Arlington and was a really beautiful ride. Check out these car shots:
The valley itself was stunning and the weather was perfect for a hike. It really made me want to hike more and I've even been looking at the Appalachian Mountain Club website. The hike took us about 5 hours, including a short stop to dry out my socks because I slipped on a rock and fell in the water. Yep...might be time to invest in some hiking boots? Here's some photos from the hike:
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| Can you see us sitting on top op the rocks!? |
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| Up in the trees |
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| Ultimate water slide |
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| Is it weird to take photos of other people's dogs? |
We didn't see too much wildlife on the trails besides some chipmunks (!!!!)...until the end! We were about 15 minutes from the parking lot when we saw a group of people standing in the trail, as we approached someone said to us, "Careful, a bear just ran across the trail!" I think my heart stopped but I also got really excited. We spent the next few minutes with the group talking about what you are supposed to do if a bear approaches you. We fell into two camps: stay completely still and pretend to be dead/invisible (a la Jurassic Park) OR scream and act crazy/make yourself as tall as you can and try to scare it. Apparently, we were both right. We all agreed you definitely shouldn't to try to climb a tree if you see a bear. And it's a good thing, because a few minutes later we saw the bear run to a tree and climb up it all the way to the top. It was crazy!!! It looked like a human/big foot. I took a picture but it's impossible to see anything in the branches. I was really excited we saw the bear but also thankful we saw it on our way out instead of in because I would have been freaking the whole time!
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| Can you see it? |
After we finished the hike, we had planned to go to the Luray Caverns but there was a 2+ hour line so sadly, we skipped it. Instead we went into the cute little town of Luray and explored the antique shops. Ice cream is my #1 vacation treat so we of course had to stop for some. We went to a place called Stephen's Sugar Shack where they had lots of homemade ice cream flavors and...wait for it...tons of Dip n' Dots options!!! I was really excited about the Dip n' Dots but my friends told me I was ridiculous and not allowed to have them unless in a theme park (LOL), so I went for an amazing cup of peanut butter caramel cookie dough. Not a bad second choice!
We got back to Arlington around 6, got showered up, and headed into D.C. to meet up with Sara and Amy's friends for some food and drinks. We went to H Street, which really reminded me of San Francisco. It's a pretty hipster area and even has a trolley in the middle of the street. We started with some beers at Smith Commons up on the deck. It was a really beautiful night and I was just so happy to have spent the whole day outside.
Eventually we went to Granville Moores, a Belgian gastropub that specializes in mussels, frites, and has a huge Belgian beer list. Yep, I knew that's where we would be eating as soon as I saw it on Yelp.
When I saw they had Trappist Rochefort 10 on the menu I had to get it. Even with the $16 price tag I just couldn't pass it up! This beer is seriously boozy (11.3% ABV) so luckily one was enough to hold me over through the meal.
We were all pretty hungry so we ordered mac n' cheese to start, and then a few orders of frites and our own bowls of mussels. I went with the classic mussels for myself, and was the designated dipping sauce orderer for the table. In case you didn't know, I am a french fry connoisseur.
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| Garlic ranch, truffle mayo, chiptole mayo, old bay ketchup. Be jealous. |
The food was seriously AMAZING...and I don't think that was just the beer talking!
Eventually we Uber'd it home and I found out I have a 4.8 rating from the drivers. WTF?? Who didn't give me a 5?!?
And I'll leave you with a blurry photo of the bottom of the Washington Monument that I took out the Uber window...
Check back for Part 3 tomorrow.
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