I was inspired by a Facebook post to visit waterfalls in West Virginia. We decided to turn it into a long weekend roadtrip that ended in Blacksburg with a tour of VT for Max and Clair. Here's an overview of our journey.
Day 1 was a visit to Black Water Falls. It was okay, but not near as awesome as Day 2. We stayed in Charleston, WV the first night.
The driving was beautiful and mountainous. There were so many mountains in WV. The most interesting part of the drive was on day 2 when we followed the river in the valley and passed so many functioning factories along the river. We also so the most beautiful waterfall every - Cathedral Falls, WV. It's a cute cave right off the road. The waterfall is apparently 60 feet tall. We enjoyed the isolation and the beauty of it.
On day 2 we also stopped to try a mountain roller coaster you get to drive/control. It was a lot of fun, though Clair said I drove too slow to be the leader.
Fun photos from the photo cam
Mountain Coaster start
New River Bridge, WV
Cathedral Falls, WV
Blackwater falls state park
The evening of Day 2 we landed in Blacksburg. I hadn't been there for 16 years. It had been so long. Blacksburg had changed so much, I got lost on the roads coming into it. It took me about a day to get reoriented to some of the changes, but I did.
We stopped at the drill field so Max could play some soccer and I could look around. We proceeded to tour the building side of campus and I looked to see what I could get into. The buildings were shut on Saturday night, but thankfully they were wide open on Monday.
Walking around the campus and showing my family was nice. I was reminiscing and wishing my college friends were there too. We went to Macados for dinner on Sat night. It was, unfortunately, disappointing. Things were just not as nice as I remembered them.
Sunday we attempted to hike the Cascades. That too was not as I remembered. It was much harder then I remembered - especially the lower path that goes along the rocks. We ended up turning back around mile 1.5 as the path was not maintained and so narrow, I got worried. Even David seemed a bit worried. Clair's knees were hurting and Max was content to turn around. So we returned to the parking lot, thankfully using the upper trail.
We headed back to Blacksburg and went downtown to explore and get a late lunch. After some lunch, there was time for soccer and working out before hading out to the nicest dinner we had over the trip. That was at the formerly known - Bogens. It was delicious. They have a nice wine selection. I told everyone that I think it would still be our choice of places to hang out in the burg.
Monday was the day of the general admissions tour. There were so many people on the tour. This is the largest college tour I've been on with the kids. I enjoyed hearing from current students, the admissions counselor, and seeing all the new buildings. Max told me he had figured out how to tell which buildings were there when I was, and which were new based on the way the outside looks. Buildings from my time need to be power washed according to him. They show their age :-)
After the tour, we ate lunch in Owen's foodcourt, until the fire alarm went off and we had to exit. Then we headed north on 81.
This was truly an amazing trip and I'm so thankful we did it. I think everyone enjoyed it. Here are some pictures from our time in Blacksburg - "Home" as the tour guide called it.
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