Hello friends!

I’m back with pictures from the other half of our mountain vacation! Today I’m sharing lots of sweeping mountainscapes and some amusing adventures Sully and I encountered along the way. 🙂 Enjoy this little travel journal!

We love going to the mountains for small trips like this one since they’re close and always provide a stunning backdrop. I grew up surrounded by these distant blue waves and always miss that when I return.

We drove along the Blue Ridge parkway for a while, stopping often at gorgeous overlooks.

Looking out over distant views like this gives you a heady sense of both the world’s size and your smallness. Such a peaceful landscape!

One overlook we stopped at had a sign for a short path. We followed it, eagerly anticipating a view its end, but it just seemed to be a loop leading to nowhere. Oops. Oh well, it was still fun to hike.

Sully was worried for my safety climbing a bunch of big rocks close to the edge, but I loved it! I’m a cautious person but also not scared of heights. I found interesting tiny ecosystems on one large boulder: a line of miniature ferns and a strangely red “tidepool.”

We also drove around the small town where we stayed. The main source of employment seemed to be a large factory that puffed beautifully white pillars of steam into the sky. I know factories are supposed to be gross but I dunno, I always like the white clouds they make. 🙂 (The landscape below it is one from the drive home.)

Haha, we found a couple of interesting signs while on various driving expeditions. The dentist one especially cracked us up, oh my.

The first sign, “Crafty Ladies & Friends,” belonged to a delightfully eccentric shop we spontaneously stopped at. We quite enjoyed looking around the array of incredibly random objects as well as some quite lovely ones. I’ll let you guess which category we put this mushroom man into…

Back to some mountainscapes, this time with phone pictures. I love how fuzzy the mountains look even in winter.

While stopping for a bathroom break we discovered a trail leading to an old canal. My favorite part was the vast solitude (no one else was there) and mountain ranges in the distance.

A couple more landscapes from the canal walk, including a view of the river that bridge crosses.

One night we visited a popular local restaurant – Cucci’s pizzeria, which was incredibly busy and a really fun experience. To be honest, their pizza wasn’t my favorite ever, but Sully loved it. I also got the salad bar which was tasty. We raised our eyebrows at the very unusual “Vittorio Salad” on the menu, but neither of us was brave enough to try it.

We had one more encounter with heights on the way home: this swinging footbridge in Buchanan. It slants precariously off of the main bridge to cross the James River. It’s old, historic, and some of the planks are in need of replacement… Sully was dubious (understandably), but I thought it was fun. 😀

Thanks so much for reading, my friends, and have a lovely day!

***Allison***