Virginia--Appomattox, Shenandoah National Park, GRADUATION!

We had a beautiful site at the Charlottesville KOA, and the weather was cool, for the most part. June 2, graduation day, was in the mid 70's with low humidity. We celebrated Nathan receiving his diploma--with all his honors (top 10% of his class!). We are all so very proud of him!



We visited Appomattox Court House  (the name of the village), that served as the surrender site where Robert E. Lee surrendered his men to Ulysses S. Grant, April 9, 1865. This is a National Historic Park. We drove south from our camp site, on VA 20, along a Virginia Scenic By-Way, enjoying the drive. The park has been re-created, and we found it very informative! We shared our visit that day with a couple of bus loads of fifth graders. Interestingly, the hit of the day for the fifth graders seemed to be our two dogs....!  One of us would wait outside a building while the other held the dogs--and the fifth graders gathered around the dogs!

This is the McLean House, where Lee and Grant met to discuss the terms of surrender.  They used the  parlor of the home for their meeting.

There is much to explore around the park as it includes the re-creation of the entire village of that time. There are 10 identified structures and 31 sites where buildings once stood. All the sites are within easy walking distances from the visitor center, however we did not embark on that walking tour because of the dogs and the heat.

We did enjoy exploring the standing structures, interacting with the fifth grade students, and other visitors who were interested in our silly Corgis!

Bitty got into the act, checking out what it was like living 150 years ago.....!

We visited Shenandoah National Park: on a rainy very cool morning (we wore jackets!)--we loaded up the dogs and  drove the Skyline Drive, from mile marker 105 to just past mm 69, entering the drive from south to north off of I-64. The fog along the drive added to the experience! By noon, the clouds and rain "burned off" and we had another great day!

 We've discovered that time is relative...we have lots of it, yet not enough to really "see" everything....! We will return, to further explore the Shenandoah National Park--perhaps from the north. We also discovered that the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library is in Staunton, VA. Yes, we'll be back! Fall would be a great time to drive along Skyline Drive and we will visit his Presidential Library!





The Blue Ridge Parkway goes south, connecting up eventually with the Great Smoky Mountains National Parks....on our list of "To Experience!"