Road Trip Virginia in the Fall

Fall is definitely my favorite time of year and I can’t help but eat up the bold golds, reds and oranges that dot the landscape around DC. But even for this city gal, I need a break from the traffic downtown and around the beltway. One of my favorite ways to escape is grabbing my girlfriends and taking a road trip!

If you want to keep thing on the cheap, pack a picnic lunch and have each girl bring a dish. Spice up the occasion by having themed dishes or keep it classy with a baguette and some cheese. Preparing a mix is a must for any road trip. Designate someone to make a playlist that will have you rockin’ out on the highway. Remember: Because thought and time goes into creating the perfect mix, the DJ gets to sit shotgun.

Now that you have the basics nailed, it’s time to choose a destination. If you want Georgetown flair outside DC, I recommend visiting Middleburg, VA off I-66. This cute town has been around since 1787 and lies in the heart of Virginia’s hunt country. Known for great dining, boutiques, Jackie Kennedy Onassis, and a love for anything equestrian, Middleburg is a great place to spend a day walking around.

For the nature lover, I recommend traveling further West on 1-66 to Skyline Drive. People travel from all over to see Virginia’s famed fall foliage. Drive along the Blue Ridge Mountains and stop at scenic overlooks. The sight is breathtaking.

Travel south on I-81 to reach the history lover’s destination (about three hours from DC). Lexington, VA is a picture-perfect civil war town full of antique shops and local historic areas of interest. Stop at the coffee shop in the main part of town and shuffle through the fallen leaves to the Virginia Military Institute. Here, you can take free tours and even see Stonewall Jackson’s preserved horse in the campus museum.

I’ve done all three trips before and they’re perfect for this time of year. Plus they only take a few hours so your entire weekend isn’t tied up. Check out http://www.virginia.org/ for more ideas. Safe travels!

The Golden Circle is Anything But Square

The Golden Circle is probably the most tourist-y thing you can do in Iceland minus visiting the Blue Lagoon. Sometimes, you've just gotta embrace the inner tourist and do as other visitors do! My choir arranged for a bus to take us around Þingvellir National Park (Þ is pronounced as a 'th' so many English tanslations are spelled Thingvellir), Iceland's first national park and the location of the Mid Atlantic Ridge. This excursion did not disappoint!


Our first stop was the geysers. Around each of the geysers were colorful pools of bubbling thermal water cordoned off by rope and a small boardwalk. I found that the geysers in Yellowstone were much more impressive than the ones I saw in Iceland. The only one that erupts on the regular is Strokkur which goes off about every 5 minutes for only a few seconds. The other geyser, Geysir (the geyser whose namesake was applied internationally), hasn't erupted in a long time.


I climbed to the top of a nearby hill to get a better view of the action. On the other side of the hill was a small valley with a river and a few houses sporadically placed in the landscape. It was quite beautiful. If you get a chance, climb the hill and sit on the peak and absorb the park- you can see for miles on a clear day :) After lunch at a nearby restaurant with an epic wedgie statue, our bus took us to Gullfoss (Golden Falls), the most powerful waterfall in Europe! It was HUGE. The water cascaded over a triangular cliff into a picturesque river valley. On good days, you can spot a rainbow in the vapor mist (I managed to catch a faint color spectrum on my DSLR). We walked down to the rocks closest to the falls and further down near the rock face to the left, I waded my feet in the freezing,rushing current.


Our next stop was the AlÞingi parliament site. As we walked, we came upon a fairy tale blueish green water by a bridge which was known as the wishing well (or 'wissing well' according to our hilarious tour guide who accidentally mispronounced s's on occasion ie. volcanic ash--> volcanic ass). If you throw a coin, make a wish, and see it land your wish will come true. I threw in a penny and forgot to make a wish. Fail.


We continued along the boardwalk up to a site with the ceremonial Icelandic flag waving in the breeze. This is where the Viking parliament, AlÞing, met 10 centuries ago, making it the oldest parliament in the world! Behind the flag and between the enormous lava rock formation was a path that serves as a visual of the rift between the American and European tectonic plates. Also, the small valley where the AlÞing is located has been sinking every year due to plate movement, and looking out over the field, it's noticeable.


The rock walls were really impressive, easily reaching 50 feet in height. It looked as if someone took a knife and cut it like a birthday cake- that's how noticeable the geological rift was. At one point, the choir gathered in the middle and sang a song as the acoustics were surprisingly quite good (we even drew a small crowd from afar). Afterward, our guide led us down to a pond where the Vikings used to drown women. A man would stand on one side with a rope to pull her in and another man would stand opposite with a long stick to push and hold her under since the water was relatively shallow. Why does it seem that drowning women was a popular past time for so many cultures?!


We continued up the path to the top of the rocks and could see the entire park as well as a beautiful lake to our right, a memorable sight to by which to remember Þingvellir. What an amazing place to experience! After returning to the states, I found out that you can go scuba diving and literally be in between 2 continents. Next trip?!