Celthix Concert! Wednesday, Feb 11 2009 

Misc and Travels 1940colonialrevival 12:51 am

We love to go to The Daily Grind in uptown Martinsville for some yummy coffee drinks!
On one visit, they had a display of cd’s by a group called the Celthix (check out their website and purchase the songs..you won’t be sorry!).
We figured that with an awesome name like that, we’d be sure to love the music.
We love every cotton-pickin’ song on the cd!
We love Celtic music and folk music and this group does a good combination.
The variety of instruments used is amazing, but the singing makes the cd!
Now go buy it!

After missing a couple of their concerts, we finally got the chance to see them perform last weekend (at The Daily Grind!).
This group is SO much fun to see in concert!
They played for almost 3 hours and we were sorry when it was over.

blackandwhiteband
We are SO excited because we just found out that they’re going to be performing again in a few weeks!

 

Blueberry Pickin’ Tuesday, Aug 26 2008 

Travels 1940colonialrevival 12:39 am

Last weekend Ariel, Owen, Mom & Dad went to a local blueberry farm (actually it was more like someone’s backyard). Adri usually would enjoy blueberry picking but….she was on the tired side that day.
We don’t really have anything interesting to say about this day….here are some pictures:

Dad saw an ad in the local paper for “pick your own blueberries”.
We did this a few years ago down in Mississippi and really enjoyed it.
This Virginia farm is run by an elderly couple who planted all kinds of fruit & vegetable plants over 20 years ago, so that they would have income once they retired.
In addition to the blueberry bushes they also had peaches, grapes, corn, tomatoes, and other stuff.

Ariel with her blueberry bucket.
Ariel thinks she looks like she is moon walking in this picture! HAHA Adri agrees!

Another shot of Ariel (she was probably eating more blueberries than she put in her bucket).
You can get some dang good deals at these farms and plus the people are always so nice!

 

Bonnie’s Visit Sunday, Aug 10 2008 

Travels 1940colonialrevival 8:05 pm

Adri’s best friend from Memphis came to visit this week and stayed 5 days. We wish she had stayed longer! We have been friends with her for over 11 years! We had so much fun going out to eat, playing games, watching movies, going to the Safari Park, the mountains, the Roanoke Star, Nancy’s Candy, Foamhenge etc.

Before we went to Safari Land, we ate across the street at this 1950’s diner called The Pink Cadillac.
It was VERY retro themed…think: Elvis, poodle skirts, old cars, and of course Humpty Dumpty (?!).

Bonnie loved the King Kong statue outside of the restaurant!

After lunch, we couldn’t resist all the signs pointing to “FOAMHENGE”.

Bonnie & Owen at Foamhenge.

By far, the most fun thing we did was going to Safari Park which is between Roanoke and Lexington Virginia.
It is a preservation for all kinds of wildlife from all over the world, and originally the park wasn’t open to the public.
When you go to the park, you have the option of touring and feeding the animals from your own car, or you can take the “Safari Wagon” tour to see and feed the animals. We REALLY recommend the Safari wagon!
While we were waiting for the next tour, we walked around their “petting zoo” area.

This was in the petting zoo area…it is one of our favorite Bonnie shots!

Here we are with one of our favorite farm animals.

At the “petting zoo” area, they have a giraffe tower (at least that’s what they call it) where you can feed the giraffes at eye level. It was very fun but their long tongues creeped Ariel out.

Say cheese!
Owen took this picture of a smiling giraffe!

When we got on the safari wagon, we turned around to find a pack of hungry dromedaries (not camels; we fed them later) running towards the wagon. These critters are SOOOOO strong! They’re nice and friendly, but they are so strong and want your food so badly that they will push you around with their massive (and heavy!) heads!

Here they are eating Adri’s hair! Ew.


We LOVE this one of Bonnie!

Look at the size of this beast’s head compared to Ariel!
Adri is amazed!

Dinnnnnner!

This animal had THE softest antlers. They felt just like velvet!

The only animal that visitors aren’t allowed to feed or pet are the zebras.
Apparently, they are very aggressive and will kick and bite if they get scared (they can even kill a lion by kicking it to death!). Bonnie almost forgot the rule and when the zebra came up to the wagon she started to pet it and then realized what she was doing. They are very pretty though.


The park is gorgeous! It is totally surrounded by mountains.
It is the perfect setting for seeing all of their animals.

They had all kinds of deer from all over the world.

Here we are at the Roanoke Mill Mountain Star.
It’s huge! It’s way up on top of a mountain in Roanoke.
There are really beautiful overlooks.

A view of Roanoke from the overlook.

We wish Bonnie could have stayed longer!
We had such a fun visit!

 

A Day Trip To The Shenandoah Monday, Jul 28 2008 

Travels 1940colonialrevival 1:40 am

Picture above is of downtown Lexington, Va.
They are doing a lot to fix up the town and keep it looking pretty.

Mom and Ariel outside of the Southern Inn Restaurant.
This is the second time we have eaten here. It is SO good!
Ariel had a HUGE turkey sandwich, Dad and Owen each had a beautifully plated meatloaf, Mom had a portabella  mushroom sandwich, and Adri had a very good Greek salad.

The picture above is from Natural Bridge, VA.
They have a “time travel” museum, where you “travel” back to the civil war era to fight the Yankees.
It is there that you summon the dinosaurs from prehistoric times to help confederates fight the Yankees.
Apparently,  the Yankees thought that the dinosaurs would fight for them…but they were wrong.
The whole exhibit (which we didn’t go to see…lol at least not this trip) has large statues of dinos eating Yankee soldiers! Weird…but Adri isn’t going to complain about this sort of violence.  You take any sort of help you can get when fighting the enemy … even dinosaurs.
Click here to read all about it and see pictures.

Natural Bridge.
It is a VERY pretty place to go (we would recommend going in spring or fall).
It has a long trail that leads to lots of interesting things like an Indian village, an underground spring, a cave, etc.

Owen in front of the Natural Bridge.

We (Ariel & Adri) were walking back to the entrance (to find air conditioning), when Ariel almost stepped on a long (probably over 4 foot in length) BLACK SNAKE! It raised up and opened it’s ugly mouth and Ariel screamed and jumped back (almost knocking Adri out of the way) and the snake started slithering away into the forest…
After she screamed and yelled “SNAKE!”, a bunch of men (including Dad and Owen) went rushing past her towards the trees to see this nasty critter.
We’re pretty sure we don’t remember anyone asking Ariel if she was alright.
That is darn  tootin’ (as Grandma would say) rude! How did they know she hadn’t been bitten?
Oh well, she lived to tell the tale.
The picture of the snake is only the tail end of it (we aren’t exaggerating!).

One of the many views from the trails.

 

Mabry Mill & The Blue Ridge Parkway Thursday, Jul 10 2008 

Travels 1940colonialrevival 5:07 pm

Above is Mabry Mill. It is on the Blue Ridge Parkway (only about 45 minutes from our house).
They have a restaurant within walking distance of the mill.
The food was very good home style cooking. Our very sweet waitress thought that 20 year old Ariel was about 10 years old. Ariel ordered sweet potato pancakes and our waitress (thinking that Ariel was so much younger) surprised her by shaping the pancakes to look like Mickey Mouse. HAHA Poor old Ariel gets this frequently!

This thingie carried the water to the mill.

This was a pretty view we saw later on down the parkway.

One of only a few covered bridges left in Virginia. This one is in Woolwine, Va.
It’s kind of just in someone’s backyard.

It was so hot that day so Adri and Ariel sat in the van while Owen snapped this way “AWWWW” shot of Mom and Dad.
Thus ends our Blue Ridge excursion.

 

A Trip To The Biltmore Monday, Jul 7 2008 

Travels 1940colonialrevival 4:50 pm

Back in April, Dad took us (Adri & Ariel) to the Biltmore house in Asheville, NC.

The picture above is the view from the back porch.

Ariel couldn’t resist taking a picture of what she hopes her future husband will look like.
Think: Egor.
He even seems to have a musical talent like Ariel.
Ariel is getting mad at Adri (but Adri doesn’t care).

This was the Wisteria covered veranda area.
The Wisteria were HUGE!

This is the Atrium room inside the Biltmore.
We had a very fun trip and would recommend that anyone visit the Biltmore (especially in the Spring when the gardens are in bloom).