Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park
We drove about 35 miles of Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park so we could visit Rapidan Camp (we actually drove it twice, since our first scheduled tour was canceled, but we didn’t know until …
Category: Nature
Museum of the Shenandoah Valley
The Museum of the Shenandoah Valley (MSV) was an unexpected delight. We went more because the reviews were very good as opposed to thinking that it sounded like fun. And while the museum turned out …
Luray Caverns
Visiting Luray Caverns in Luray, Va., had me thinking of the line delivered by Randal Graves in Clerks: “This job would be great if it wasn’t for the [bleeping] customers.” For Luray Caverns would be …
The North Carolina Arboretum
The North Carolina Arboretum, just southwest of Asheville, was a disappointment to me; I was worried that I was getting a little snobbish on this topic, so I gave it a really good effort, walking …
Atlanta Botanical Garden
I discovered how to get Doug to a botanical garden as a willing participant – trolls! The Atlanta Botanical Garden (ABG) has an exhibition of Thomas Dambo trolls through September 17th, so we decided to …
Select Sites in North Carolina
Doug and I had both listened to Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights by Gretchen Sullivan Sorin. The book was eye-opening and heartbreaking, to say the least. It tells …
Sarah P. Duke Gardens
The Duke Gardens in Durham, N.C., consist of 55 acres of landscaped and wooded areas. They are free to enter, though cheap parking must be paid. There were a couple of areas of absolute “wow” …
Ladew Topiary Gardens
I lured Doug into a garden tour by explaining that this wasn’t your regular garden, it was a topiary garden, and thus entirely different. Though it turned out there were way more flowers than topiary, …
Scenes from Western Massachusetts
We hopped back and forth between N.Y. and Mass. as we headed north, then swung back through Mass. as we headed south from Vermont. First up was the Berkshire Botanical Garden, which I was honestly …
Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory
The Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory in South Deerfield, Mass., has thousands of butterflies and moths inside their 8,000 square foot conservatory. Sincee butterflies and moths like plants and flowers, there’s lots of that to see, …