And We Did Not Even Get Lost

On Thursday, we took an overnight trip to Luray Caverns with our homeschool boys club. Neither I nor the boys had ever been (although it has been on my list of places to visit for ages) and we had just a blast.

The trip down took less than 2 hours and was a really nice drive (gosh Virginia is beautiful…especially this part of the Shenandoah Valley). The boys were a little antsy after being the car but they did manage to settle down a bit after they ran off a bit of steam. It was actually very hot that day (upper 80s in October!) but the caverns themselves were very cool.

Waiting patiently

The caverns were utterly amazing. As soon as we walked down into the caverns you just became completely awed realizing how incredible nature really is to create something like that. I don't know what the boys were expecting, but they seemed duly impressed.

"The Towel" - You could shine a light through it.

After visiting the caverns, we decided to go through the garden maze they have there. This was one of the highlights of Jason's trip. He was so looking forward to it. I thought that it would be fairly easy and we would zip right through it, but it actually was really hard, especially for someone as directionally challenged as myself.

After the maze, we headed over to Jellystone Park (yes…of Yogi Bear fame - Jason's comment - "you mean it is a real place?") for the night. We cooked hot dogs and built a campfire (and yes, had s'mores). There was an open field in front of the cabins and the boys played flashlight tag well into the night while the Mom's sat around the fire and talked. What a way to cap off the evening.

We ended up taking the scenic route home through the Shenandoah National Park and stopped off at a roadside shop and picked up a beautiful basket and some honey and apple cider.

All in all a wonderful trip. I know that I am not doing the description of this trip justice as I am tired and breaking my rule of being in bed early. But it was such a great trip…one of those times when you really appreciate being able to homeschool and go on adventures like these…made all the more fun because you get to do it on a school night!

I actually took tons more pictures then I have included here. Feel free to go check them out!