Parenting on Purpose

Shenandoah National Park spans almost 200,000 acres (or 800 square kilometres) of land, and it occupies much of the Blue Ridge Mountains. In our short visit of three days, we had fallen in love with this beautiful natural paradise, which is home to many beautiful animals and plants. Besides the Appalachian Trail (which was detailed in the previous post ), we also got to enjoy a number of other experiences in the National Park. Big Meadows We first encountered Shenandoah as we enjoyed a picnic at the Big Meadows Campground, which is located just opposite Big Meadows. Apparently Big Meadows is home to the largest number of species of flora and fauna; some of which are not found anywhere else in the park!  We spend many moments wandering in the luscious wilderness wonderland, with both boys looking for creatures big and small. The Big Meadows Campground was the location for another spectacular encounter. Gentle and docile, wild deer roam freely in the park, and we were blesse...

The sun came out in all its glory. We seized the opportunity, and set up a picnic lunch in Shenandoah National Park, a gorgeous natural scenic site overlooking the Shenandoah River and Valley from which it is named. It was surreal to simply enjoy the beauty of the Big Meadows site, a vast area that apparently contains the highest concentration of rare plants in the Park, as well as an abundance of animals not found anywhere else here. After lunch, we attended one of the ranger programmes, which was a guided walk along the Appalachian Trail, the longest hiking-only trail in the world. This is a massive trail which spans some 2,200 miles (about 3,500 kilometres), and cuts across 14 states in the Eastern United States. It runs from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine. Ranger Ginny, our guide for the hike. Her fascinating stories provided tremendous insights into why the trail was established and what it would take to embark on such a journey. It was conceiv...

What would you do? You live a fairly comfortable life. You work very hard, and you get to live in a fairly comfortable house. But it does not belong to you. And it never will. That’s the law. It’s been that way, and that’s the way it’ll always be. Then you hear about an opportunity to go away to a distant land. You know it’ll likely be very hard; and you may not live as comfortably as you’re living now. But you know that the land will be yours. For you and your descendants. Forever. When the Irish left for America in the 1700s, that was the dilemma that they faced. And a number of them chose to leave their fairly comfortable life in Ireland in hope of a better life in the newly discovered land of America. Life was hard, and the immigrants had to build their houses from scratch, but if they succeeded, they would be able to live in a place that they could call their own. That was what we learnt from the Frontier Culture Museum, an excellent museum which chronicles the life of early...

We cannot visit the southern state of Virginia without understanding its role in the Civil War. After all, it was here in Virginia, in 1865, at the famous Appomattox Court House, where the top Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to the Union forces, led by General Ulysses S. Grant. This act of surrender was considered by many as the closing act of the Civil War, and Lee's surrender effectively meant that the North had won the war.  While it was too far for us to drive to the town of Appomattox, we instead decided to visit the town of Harrisonburg.  Stopping by the Visitor Center, we realised that the town was at the crossroads of two major highways, the Valley Turnpike and the Rockingham Turnpike. And because the entire region was one of the most prosperous agricultural counties in the country, it was known as the "bread-basket of the Confederacy". Whoever controlled the region controlled the food source for the South. T here were therefore many historical s...

We got up bright and early and headed over to Showalter’s Orchard and Greenhouse. It was a bright sunny weekend morning, and a great time for apple picking! When we got to the orchard we were delighted to see rows upon rows of apple trees, each one laden with large, juicy apples. We hurried to get our little bags and decided to pick one peck of apples. Pecks and bushels are apparently imperial units of measurement for dry volume measurement and used especially for apples and other fruits - 1 peck is approximately 10-12 pounds (5 kilograms), or 32 medium apples, or 3-4 9 inch pies. As for 1 bushel, it is equal to 4 pecks. It was Golden Delicious and Stayman that were available for picking today, and we headed straight to the apple trees, picking and tasting the apples before choosing the really delicious ones from the trees. We learnt that there is a specific way to pick apples. You do not simply yank them off the tree with brute force, but instead hold each apple in the palm of y...

We were sad to leave our lovely accommodation in the High Country of North Carolina and we set off for a new adventure in a new state. But we still couldn’t get enough of the Blue Ridge Parkway, and took a slight detour to the Linn Cove Viaduct, supposedly a spectacular architectural marvel completing the final construction of the Parkway, and also boasting breathtaking views. But the fog settled in almost immediately after we arrived, and the views from the Viaduct were as spectacular as if we were surrounding in nothing but white space. The gorgeous Linn Cove Viaduct. An Emperor's New Clothes Experience! Disappointed, we headed back north, through the Volunteer State of Tennessee, and into Virginia, also called “The Old Dominion”. Traditionally, we would always find a location to visit to break the long journey (this trip took 5 hours in total drive time). However, because of our wifi problems over the past few days, we were unable to find a place that was open by the tim...