Oh Shenandoah...

For our one year anniversary, Jon surprised me with a weekend in Shenandoah National Park, where we stayed at Skyland. The food was delicious, and I was very impressed with all of the displays at the visitor centers.

Sadly, we did not see any black bears, other than the stuffed variety in the gift shop. We did see a TON of deer, and a wild turkey. Unfortunately, we also did not get to do any hikes due to the fog and rain showers, but the park was still beautiful nonetheless. In fact, it looked very magical and it reminded me of that scene in "Brigadoon" where the fog covers the valley, and when it lifted, the town would be there.

I could tell that Jon was bummed about the weather, but it was raining even more at home, and I reminded him that the rain in Shenandoah is much more beautiful than the rain in Olney. We bought an annual pass to support the National Parks, and vowed that we would come back to the park in the fall to see the leaves change. Perhaps we'll even go camping. Anyone want to come with us?

On our actual wedding anniversary, May 3, we wanted to do some exploration out of the rain and fog, so we went underground to Luray Caverns. I hadn't been there since I was a young teenager, and it was even more impressive than I remembered. They don't have "live tour guides" anymore, which was kind of sad. Yet, we also enjoyed that we could go at our own pace and listen to recordings at various stops. We could hang back and let the annoying tourists get ahead of us, so that we could enjoy the caverns in silence, and take as many pictures as we wanted. Ok, as many pictures as I wanted... I think I went a little crazy with my new digital camera and documented every inch of the caverns. This last picture is really special, because the formation is called "Bride and Groom" and so we posed in front of it for our 1 year anniversary. And then went back to the fog...