I love the fall colors, orange, yellow, umber, crimson, green and gold. |
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| We are spending a couple of weeks to enjoy the colors along the Blue Ridge Parkway. We spent three days driving various parts on the Virginia side and will spend a few days along the North Carolina side. The peak of color is not suppose to be until the 3rd week of October, but here is a little slideshow to let you know the colors are glorious already. | |
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click on the picture above to watch a little slide show, but have your sound on, there is a little treat :) |
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| We had other fun too; we tried 3
wineries close to the parkway, had a little lunch and just drove and
drove to see what we could see.
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| You can taste wine or apples, your choice :) | Johnny Appleseed, where would we be with out him? |
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| The tasting room just waiting for us to invite ourselves in. | The mercantile was not open, but looked welcoming none the less. |
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| Inside the tasting room, they had all sorts of things for sale, mostly apples :) but quite a few wines and assorted things including apple butter. | Try this next time, a taste of cheese whiz and some pepper wine and you have jalapeno cheese wine :) |
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| We also went to the Natural Bridge, this is the main entrance, gift shop, bus stop, etc. There is a nature trail and of course "the bridge". | There is also a wax museum, all decorated for Halloween... |
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| Heading down the trail, it is 137 steps down (or you can take the bus). | This is the Natural Bridge, George Washington (as in General and 1st President) found it while surveying the area in Virginia. |
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| These are George's initials that he carved into the wall at the time of his survey... | The back of the bridge, they do an illumination at night similar to what Niagara Falls does. You can also drive across the top (VA-11) but you can't look down, they have it blocked off with a wall so people don't stop on the highway. |
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| The James River along the Blue Ridge Parkway... | The price of gas is getting lower and lower, or you can stop here, have some lunch and possibly create your own "gas" :) |
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| Mabry Mill along the parkway, I thought this was a pretty good picture with the reflection in the pond. | They have a restaurant at Mabry Mill, we checked to see if we could eat there, there was a one hour wait. I remembered the Tuggle's Gap restaurant where we got onto the parkway, so we went back. We had a great lunch, our BLT sandwiches only cost $3.95 each, were very tasty and we also each had a cup of tomato soup that was pretty yummy too. Can't beat that! |
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| The next winery was Villa Appalaccia, who would figure that something like this was in the middle of the Virginia hills | An Italianate Villa in the middle of nowhere, but lovely none-the-less. |
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| Jim heading into the tasting room. Susanne (the owner/winemaker) just happened to open up for the day since she was there. We lucked out in a couple of things, we got to taste and the wines were very good. | There were all sorts of places to sit and enjoy a glass of wine, a picnic, or what ever. This was like an old ruin that you could sit in and also a brick oven, I am guessing for making pizzas. YUM. |
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| Another winery that just happens to also have a restaurant. They do serve both lunch and dinner and it appeared to be quite busy. | A little color and a nice area to sit with friends and enjoy a glass of wine on a glorious day. |
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| It does look like a chateau... | The tasting room/gift shop was huge. The wines were just so-so, but I did buy a bottle of semi-sweet white wine for a friend back home :) |
| Then it's off to the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina... I want to go to Linn Cove Viaduct, one of the most photographed parts of the Parkway in NC. It's going to be a tough one, there are lots of clouds, so the colors won't be a vibrant... and I don't have all day to wait for the sun for each picture :P | |
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| heading up to the viaduct... | more colors (and clouds) |
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| more color and hills | looking out over a valley |
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| looking up at part of the viaduct | Jim waiting on the side of the road... |
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| ok, me by the side of the road... | color, shadows and hills |
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| The storm front moving over | more color |
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| oh, yeah, more color | and last, but not least, more color and Grandfather Mountain in the clouds... we checked in hiking up to the top, but it wasn't to be, they had closed the hiking trails due to winds that were reaching up to over 70 MPH on top |
