Category: Roadtrips

In Asheville, North Carolina we stopped to see the Biltmore Estate. Unfortunately, they were all sold out of tickets to tour the house, but we were able to explore the grounds and gardens.

Carter noticed that we were seeing lots of different types of mushrooms on our hikes along the Blue Ridge Parkway, and decided to start documenting all of the different one we saw.

In general Carter doesn't like us to take her picture anymore, so here are the few goofy shots I got her to agree to - although I think the second one was a surprise, where I snapped it when she wasn't paying attention.

Our third day on the Blue Ridge Parkway was again light on photos - but not because it wasn't beautiful! The only real picture we captured was of this famous spot along the Parkway - the Linn Cove Viaduct.

Our second day on the Blue Ridge Parkway was as lovely as the first. We stopped for several hikes along the way, but forgot to take many photos. Whoops!

Our first day on the Blue Ridge Parkway started out very foggy (this would become a theme for any time on the Parkway before 9:00am), but cleared up eventually. The Parkway is gorgeous - every couple of miles you pass some sort of amazing overlook, or a hike, or a pretty little picnic spot. Most of the Parkway is above 2000 feet, and big chunks of it are above 3000 feet - so the views down into the valleys are beautiful.

This was our second try of the Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park (first try was in 2016) - and we got fogged in again. Although this time was a bit better, and we did end up with a few views along the way.

This year's roadtrip started in Washington, DC. We started on the National Mall, checking out a bunch of the Smithsonian museums. Luckily things weren't as crowded as I had feared.

During a work trip to Washington D.C. this past fall, I went to check out a museum I hadn't seen before - the Udvar-Hazy extension to the National Air and Space Museum. This is the place where they keep all the stuff that is too big for the main Air and Space Museum on the National Mall. They've got the Blackbird (SR-71) there, plus a Space Shuttle! It was pretty amazing. They've also got a place where you can look in on the workshop where they do all the restorations before things go out for display.

Our last stop on the trip before heading home was dinner at Medieval Times in Dallas. They give you a 3 course dinner (which you can only eat with your hands!) and you watch a medieval tournament with jousting, sword fighting, horsemanship, etc. It's all choreographed, and was really entertaining. It was very dark in there and we took almost no pictures, but Carter did take this one (fuzzy) panaromic shot of the arena.