March 2003 Archives

Anyone ever been to Lynchburg, VA? Anything fun to do around there? Sarah and I are planning to go away for a couple days during our spring break to get away from it all, so I was just wondering. :)

Posted on March 9, 2003 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

My dream vacation. And, given the state of my finances, it'll probably forever remain a dream. :P Along with my other dream vacations. :)

Maybe I should make some different dream vacations. Like one to Maryland or Delaware.

Woo.

Posted on March 11, 2003 9:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One of the nice perks of working at a school, besides the snow days, is spring break. After today, I've got two weeks off. Woo! Knowing me, I'll probably waste most of it, but hopefully I'll manage to accomplish SOMEthing. We'll see. It'll be nice having the time off. I feel like I've been getting very little sleep lately, so I can't wait to catch up.

Posted on March 14, 2003 8:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I thought I'd put this up before, but my mom reminded me that I hadn't. This is the bed and breakfast in Lynchburg that Sarah and I are going to during the weekend of the 28th. It's a pretty long drive, but it'll be nice to get away. And I haven't been swimming in far far too long.

Sorry I've been lax about the MP3 of the week. Had a visitor for a few days at the beginning of this week, so I didn't have the time. But I'll get better, I promise.

Posted on March 19, 2003 11:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Hey there. Sorry I've been so quiet lately, but I was enjoying my 2 week long spring break. Much of it was spent sleeping a lot, but that was nice. Now I'm back at work, which isn't nearly as much fun.

This past weekend to end our spring break, Sarah and I went to The Ivy Creek Farm Bed and Breakfast. We had a really great time. This is the only B&B I've seen so far that has an indoor heated swimming pool. I can't even remember the last time I've been swimming. We were in the pool quite a bit.

The drive down was really nice. It was a bit cloudy, but the scenery was great. Lots of blossoming trees and wildflowers along the way. In Lynchburg itself, there were a lot of really beautiful old homes of various architectural styles. According to one of the hosts, Lynchburg was one of the most prosperous places in the country between about 1890 and 1930 and it really shows.

Breakfast was excellent and filling both days. The hosts recommended some yummy restaurants to go to, including a very spicy Indian restaurant that Sarah especially liked. Yummy yums.

On Saturday, we drove up to Crab Tree Falls. It was in the 70s and we wished that we'd brought shorts. We tried climbing to the top, but I think we only got about halfway. We got up to what appeared to be the top from the starting point, but when we got there, we discovered that there was still a long way to go. Sarah was starting to get a sunburn, so we headed back down. The falls were really beautiful, though. It's just amazing how long they are. And even on a beautiful day like Saturday, there were hardly any people there.

Afterwards, we got on the Blue Ridge Parkway, which was also pretty deserted. It was a really nice drive. We got off at the Peaks of Otter and started heading towards the National D-Day Memorial. Just as we got off the parkway, we saw 3 deer by the side of the road. They weren't especially skiitish and we were able to stop right next to them, so Sarah could get a picture.

The memorial itself was the only real bust of the trip. It was $10 per car to get in. Which would've probably been fine if they'd actually mentioned that the memorial wasn't entirely finished. It was like walking into a ghost town. Several things mentioned on the brochure weren't there. Exhibits had no plauqes explaining what they were for. And several plaques mentioned the fact that a lot of the statuary was temporary or in temporary positions. I think it's fine to open an unfinished memorial to the public, but it would've been nice if they'd told us that before we went in. It was only, "Here's your brochure, you can purchase guided tours at the gift shop." I don't even want to think about what the guided tour was like.

Of course, we woke up Sunday to snow, which was bizarre. So it made the trip back a bit daunting, but it wasn't as bad as it could've been. All in all, we had a great time. And we'll probably go back at some point, especially for the pool. :)

Posted on March 31, 2003 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

To finish off our spring break, Sarah and I went to The Birchmere last night for the first time to see Tracy Grammer and Richard Shindell. The Birchmere's a pretty decent place to go. The food's O.K., though the prices are predictably high. Surprisingly, some of the best seats weren't taken at all and some of the worst ones were scooped up readily. Maybe people just like seeing the stage head on, no matter how far back they were, but we got seats just to the side of the stage that provided a perfect view. It may not have worked out so well had it been a full band, but there were never more than 3 people on stage at any one time and quite a lot of the time, it was only 1.

Anyhow... the show was great and we had a really good time. Sarah's been a big fan of Tracy Grammer (and the late Dave Carter, who wrote all of the duo's songs) ever since she saw her at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival last summer, so she really enjoyed her set. She played with a stand-up bass player most of the time, though Richard Shindell came out to play on a few songs.

After her set, there was a brief pause before Richard Shindell came out to play. He played by himself for a while, then Tracy Grammer came out to play mandolin, violin, and guitar on a number of his tunes before she departed. She returned for the encore.

The sound was quite good and the music was great. We had a good time. Our waiter was a bit surly, and I'm sure he was even more pissed that we only ordered some snacks. But oh well. We probably tipped him more than he deserved.

We'll be returning to The Birchmere on Friday for a Kris Delmhorst show, so hopefully that'll be just as entertaining.

Posted on March 31, 2003 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)