Cabin Crafted

Category: travel

  • Memories

    Today’s news had throwback photos of October 10, 1979.

    On that day, a surpise early snowstorm dumped up to 10 inches of snow on parts of the Shenandoah Valley. When I saw the article, I asked my hubby if it had any significance to him but he said it didn’t until I reminded him of where we were and what we were doing.

    We had taken a weekend backpacking trip along the Skyline Drive. On Friday night, we tent camped at the Big Meadows Campground rather than walking in a trail we were unfamiliar with in the dark. I was an avid backpacker at that time, trail Supervisor for the Appalachian Trail Club in Tidewater area of Virginia. They came out monthly to clear a section of the AT from Maupin’s Field to Three Ridges, but this weekend it was just the two of us. Being Autumn, we figured it would be a nice, mild weekend to go see the fall leaf colors, so we borrowed a fairly thin sleeping bag for hubby. That Friday night ended up being very cold and I exchanged sleeping bags with him so he could have the down bag as I had a down jacket I could wear in the thinner bag. Saturday was gorgeous. It probably got up in the mid 70’s and we had a great hike down the trail and a signifant elevation loss to a hollow where we planned to spend the night. Camp was set up, dinner prepared and enjoyed, and a lovely evening as it got dark, looking at the stars. The night stayed relatively warm, a surpise after the prior night.

    On Sunday we woke and were about to prepare breakfast when I looked in the distance to see a very ominous black cloud. The decision was made to pack up, grab something we could eat on the move and start the hike back up the hill to where our car was parked. We hadn’t even begun to walk out until it started to rain, then hail. The temperature began to plummet and the hail turned to sleet, then snow. By this point, we were hustling to get up the slope and back to the car, a few miles away. Packs tossed in the hatchback and we set out to get off the Skyline Drive when we saw a young man, improperly clad, hiking up the road. We stopped and asked his if he needed help and he asked if we could drop him off at the site where his group would be or would gather. We did, and slowly through accumulating ice and snow made our way to Afton Pass where we got off the Drive and stopped to finally get food at Howard Johnsons. While we ate, we heard a report that the Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway were being shut down. We hoped the young man found his group and a safe place to stay. The Drive and Parkway were shut down for 3 days due to the storm.

    That was a trip we remember in detail 46 years later. I don’t remember ever seeing snow in Virginia in October, prior to or since.

  • Bucket Lists

    At times, most everyone says, “that is on my bucket list.” Well, one on my list was finally fulfilled last week. We haven’t vacationed in 7 years, a couple of short trips to visit one son and family, but not a vacation to far away places. On Saturday, May 10, we left the Virginia Mountains for Seattle, Washington to board an Alaskan bound cruise ship on Sunday, May 11. The boarding was chaos with two large cruise ships from two different companies boarding simultaneously through the same terminal. We embarked through the inner passage, with 4 ports plus a cruise up another fjord to a glacier.

    What a glorious majestic place is Alaska!

    Most of the inner passage follows fjords between tall rugged peaks, many snow covered. The weather was mostly kind with the rainiest days on at sea days. That did make for rougher travel, but the in port days occasionally had short bursts of light drizzle, but mostly mild temperatures and broken clouds. The second photo is near the top of White Pass on the train. This is the path the miners in the Klondike gold rush traveled.

    There was fun on the ship as well with comedians, large musical production shows, games, karaoke (not our thing), and photo fun such as this moose who was in a different place on the ship nearly every day.

    Though we didn’t participate, if you found it, took a photo and posted it on social media, you were entered in a prize drawing. We enjoyed stumbling across it as we moved about the ship.

    And cruises are never ending food! The International Market is themed buffet styled aisles open from 6 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. included in your cruise fare. If that wasn’t enough, there were 3 “fancy” restaurants, a pizza restaurant, a sushi restaurant, and an Irish pub, 3 fancy coffee bars, 1 gelato bar, and numerous alcohol bars all at extra cost.

    There were bands, singers, and other musicians that performed in the various bars around the Piazza, a three story center portion of the ship.

    Yesterday, we were up very early and off the ship to an excursion in Seattle by 7:30 a.m. We got to go up the Space Needle, then over to Pike Place Market where we left the tour as they were then going to the airport by noon and our flight wasn’t until midnight. On our own, we spent many hours walking the waterfront, exploring the area and taking a ferry to Bremerton Island and back, then finally using their great light rail system to travel across the city to the airport for only a few dollars each. After a night and early morning of flights, we arrived home around lunch time, tired, still trying to still the wobbles from the ship and flying, but excited and happy about our adventure.

    Now the grass needs mowing, the house cleaned, the laundry done, and back in the routine. It is worth it after all the fun.