Shenandoah Caverns: Ruled by Pixies

While we were driving through the Blue Ridge Mountains we had to make time to stop at one of the many caverns along our route. Shenandoah Caverns was included in the admission price of the parade float museum, so it was the obvious choice. That and the fact that it's mascot is a pixie.

This dated photo was right inside the door, I knew we had made the right choice. We had to wait about 15 minutes for the next tour. I'm happy to walk around a tacky gift shop while I wait! I ran over to one case, very excited about the souvenirs I was about to pick up, then I realized it was a display of vintage ephemera from the caverns. Dang! They still had a pretty cute pennant. AND a crushed penny machine of course!

 This is their original soda counter from 1957! During the summer it is open and you can get fries and milkshakes.

 The caverns were really beautiful! The only other cavern I've ever been in is Ruby Falls, and Shenandoah Caverns is much more spectacular! The pixies let us know not to touch the formations.

 Beautiful! I took so many photos! It was hard to narrow them down!

 They have the largest "bacon formations" in the US, if not the world. A fact they are pretty proud of.

 The amount of time it takes for these formations to form. It is something like one square inch every 100 years. It is incredible how old and beautiful they are!

 Also the cave had great lighting for photos. A definite plus!

 Selfie 200 feet below the surface of the Earth.

 I can't remember what these were called but they looked like sparkling diamonds when the lights came on. The guide turned on a color changing light and it was a spectacular effect. She said they host weddings in front of it sometimes. I bet that is beautiful!

 The final attraction at the Caverns is called "Main Street of Yesteryear". You walk up these steps past some giant bears.

 Yep. You press this and the bears talk, something about coming across the country to live there.

 The exhibit is reconstructed antique window displays. Some of them are really amazing! Like Cinderella in her carriage, and the toy soldiers. Everything was hooked up to some kind of sensor because things started moving when you stepped close to the window. The only thing was there was no sound, no music, it gave everything an extra creepy felling.

 There was a big carousel!

 Part of an Easter window.

 The circus was my favorite! Three rings of action! The circus horses! The acrobats! The characters in the rings moved, and then there were floats that went all around the edge.

 The creepiest was the ball room scene. The dolls all jerked around to the sound of grinding gears. Spooky!

Thanks Shenandoah Caverns! We had a great time!

Vilano Beach!

We rented a house in St. Augustine for 5 nights during our trip. It was 1 block from Vilano beach, and it was awesome! We used air bnb again and it worked out great as usual! It was nice to be in a house together, which a kitchen and living room (and a hot tub!), instead of being in a hotel. It was cheaper than being in a hotel too!

There was about a 2 block walk to the beach. Not too bad! It was also just a few blocks from a Publix. We went there several times a day every day, to buy floats, and fruit, and drinks, and popsicles.

I got contacts just for the beach! I didn't want to worry about losing my glasses, and I didn't want to swim blind. I'm very near sighted and overly concerned with shark attacks. 

I'm so mad at myself. I bought a beautiful Put a Lid On It hat JUST for this trip! And then left it at home! I left it until last so it wouldn't get smushed and then it stayed home. Bah. I had this fold up one Travis bought me at Goodwill last summer. I had it "just in case" but ended up falling in love with it. I need more colors! I spent most of my beach time under the umbrella. I love listening to the waves but I don't love the sunburn! Also, Crystal brought me that Frida bag back from her honeymoon in Mexico (almost 7 years ago!). It was perfect for the beach!

The beach was covered in tiny shells. Which was a little hard on the feet, but pretty! It also SUCKED the first two days when the waves were really rough and if you fell you got dragged over the sharp shells. I got a few battle wounds. But on the third day it calmed down and got perfect. Travis and Marc just rode waves the entire time.

 Travis bought the big gator, and the little guy was at our beach house. Isn't his face funny? 

 We're all about sun protection in this family.

It was so gorgeous! And the beach front was mostly single family homes, not condos or hotels, so it felt like a private beach! I'll put up with some pokey shells to not have to be crammed in with hundreds of families any day. Look at that sky!

One morning we came down and there was a horse in the sea! Beautiful!

 His owner just walked him through the waves for a while, then walked up to the ramp and left. 

 I liked taking the little gator out and just floating on the waves before they broke. I could do that for hours. I especially love when huge ones come and you can jump. It feels like you are going so high! Crystal and I started pretending to slam dunk when that happened. Dorky and hilarious.

 You have to take a photo like this if you are on the beach.

 We bought beach coozies at publix. Aren't they cute? I'd been looking for this variety of Arizona tea all over in Tennessee but could never find it. Mucho Mango, it's good!

 We went on many beach walks. You could have your dog on this beach so we saw tons of cute ones!

 So many walks.

 The first two days we were there it rained pretty hard around midday. So we had to walk back in the rain. It was kind of fun though, and when we got back we sat in the hot tub to warm up!

 The only picture taken of our house for some reason. We had the bottom floor. 

 Beautiful beach motel a few blocks from house. That sign!

It was pretty much perfect. I highly recommend Vilano beach if you are looking for somewhere not crowded, where you can ride the waves all day.

Night Out in Louisville

Travis and I went on a whirlwind trip to Louisville this weekend. We had a pretty special reason (I'll tell you about that tomorrow!) but we don't need much coaxing to make the 3 hour drive up to Louisville. We LOVE it there! If I was interested in moving, we would probably move there. 

We got into town in the late afternoon (we listened to Games of Thrones on the way there, we're on book three and I keep getting freaked out! I can't wait to watch the show!). Of course we checked Happy Cow for places to eat (vegans/vegetarians you have GOT to get that app! It rules when you are traveling!) and we saw this place called Hillbilly Tea. I'm not crazy about the name but Travis loves tea and I was interested in some BBQ tofu that was mentioned in a review.

 Travis doesn't like to smile in pictures so I love it when I catch a picture of him smiling naturally. 

 Look at all those mason jars! I got the sweet bush iced tea and it was SO GOOD! Had a strong vanilla taste that I absolutely adored. Travis got some of the tea hootch and said it was great.

 I loved their screen printed menus too. It looks like they change seasonally, which is cool. 

They were out of the smoked okra appetizer we wanted to try, but the substitute was fried portabella mushrooms over some chow chow and man where they GOOD. I decided to be brave and try mushrooms on their own and I'm so glad I did. Mmm, I could eat another order of this right now. 

 We both got the smoked tofu stack for dinner and sadly it wasn't great. I'm not really into eggplant, and I prefer tofu to be cut up more, or shredded. It wasn't terrible, just not something I would order again. I loved the barley on the bottom though! I don't think I've ever had that before, I'll definitely been buying a bag and trying my hand at it.

I loved the old silverware too! So we had a great time at Hillbilly Tea and I would go back, maybe in the fall to see what their next vegan entree will be. It was a little pricey, but fun for a date night.

 After dinner we went down to the Louisville Palace. It is the most beautiful theater I've ever been too. It is from 1928 and usually hosts musical acts, but every summer they do a movie series. You can see what we were there for...

 Yes! The movie on Friday night was Rebecca. I had read the book but hadn't seen the movie before. It was GREAT.

 Look at that lobby!

 Close up on the amazing ceiling. 

 I never got a clear picture, but I'm going to show you anyway. Can you just die? Oh I'm glad the lights go down for the movie because I would be so distracted by all the beautiful things to see. We ended up sitting on the floor, but I love the view from the balcony as well.

And here is the lobby on the way out. Just perfection. We're hoping we'll be able to make it up for at least one more film in the series. If you live anywhere close I highly recommend catching one of the films there! Louisville is awesome, and there is GREAT vintage shopping there! So cheap! I'm bummed that we didn't have time to go to Tickled Pink this time.