Mountains 2014

My husband and I, are so lucky to live in a place that's not too far away from all the good stuff.  We're an hour from DC, an hour from Richmond and we're a little over and hour from the Mountains.  I've been wanting to go to the Mountains in the fall for a while.  It's been a long time since we've been.  Today was perfect because we didn't have anything going on and it was just our 14 year Wedding Anniversary so we decided to go on a day trip.

I planned a picnic lunch to bring with us.  And while I was packing the picnic basket I noticed a beautiful rainbow on the back deck.  I knew today was going to be perfect.

I finally had the picnic basket and picnic blanket ready to go.

We drove on up to Skyline Drive at the Thornton Gap Entrance. 

After we paid our $15 entrance fee we went North.

We stopped off at the first overlook we saw.  It was chilly.  I'm glad we brought hoodies.

The leaves were spectacular.  The pictures don't really show you how bright everything was.

We continued on.

At the next overlook I found a woolly worm.

 I found another one later that was all black but he'd been run over by a car.  Seeing these with a lot of black could symbolize a harsh winter.  Here's the first one I found up close.

A leaf flying in the air.

Another overlook.

Rocks

Another overlook

At one point we got to an area that had these tall trees with yellow leaves.  The sun was beaming down just right on these trees.  Everyone was stopping at this area.  We stopped too.  We couldn't resist.  It was so pretty.

A picture Nate got.

An overlook

We finally got to Dickey's Ridge.  It was the last picnic area on our route before the entrance/exit to Front Royal.  I was glad to finally get here.  I had to pee so bad.  LOL

Anyways, there was a beautiful tree with red leaves.

We grabbed the picnic stuff and went and found a nice place to have our lunch.

I pulled out my little wine table.  The stick screws into the bottom of the table.  (It fits perfectly in my picnic basket).  I put the wine glasses on the table.  Nate was so embarrassed.  He said people were watching us.  I told him "who cares".  I also said "If anyone is looking at us, it's because they're wishing they had the table too".  I did have a little vase with a fake rose but Nate really started whining when I put the out so I put it back in the basket.  LOL  And I overheard ppl say that table was awesome.  One guy even walked past us and said "Now, that is a good idea...so cool".  :)

I filled our wine glasses with lemonade I got for free at CVS with my extra bucks.  :)

We enjoyed our lunch.  I brought Roast beef sandwiches, fat free pringles, simply balanced fruit roll up, fruit, crackers, cheese, almonds, and a slice of cake.

Here's my plate.

Here's the fruit, nuts, crackers and cheese.  The cheese in this pack was so good.

A ladybug flew onto the wine glass.  :)

Here's me basking in the sunshine.

Here we are.

After we were finished eating lunch, I brought out the cake slice.  We shared this.  We didn't have any cake on our anniversary so this was our anniversary cake.  :)

We hung out for a while after we were finished eating.  I laid down for a moment and got this picture of Nate.

Here's our view while we ate.

I packed everything up.

Here's Nate sitting on the blankets.

I grabbed an acorn from our picnic area so we can keep it as a memory.  Sentimental I know.  :)

We continued back the way we came and stopped at some overlooks that were too busy to stop at on the first way through.

Ladybugs were EVERYWHERE.  Here's one on the car.

I also got pinched by one.  And yes, ladybugs pinch.  Not the bright red (North American) ones but the Asian Varieties do.  It hurt, and I know because one pinched my neck.  Nate got pinched by one too.  These Asian ones are used to aid in pest control.  A sign of many ladybugs mean a harsh winter too.  Look at my neck?  OUCH!!

We had to keep swapping at the mean ladybugs but that didn't stop us from getting out of the car to check out some more overlooks.  We even took a small hike to get these views.

Here's me at some rocks at end of trail.

Here's Nate taking some pictures.

Cute little house in the valley.

This is a panoramic that Nate took.

After we got back down the Mountain (Nate was loving the drive back down a little too much) we stopped off in Sperryville at a apple stand and checked out the apples.  There were no honey crisp so we didn't get anything but it was fun to check it out.

Winesap apples in a bin.

We had a fantastic day and we're so glad we went.  :)