Shenandoah Valley

I had said I'd report back about this. We got back last Sunday after three days in Luray, just west of Shenandoah National Park.

• We stopped in at Barboursville Vineyards. It was Thursday, the place was empty. Literally. Winnie and I were the only people there sampling most of the time. On Saturday I understand it was a fight to get up to the counter. It was nice to have the attention of the assistant manager during the tasting, but we both found the number of tattoos she had, the pierced tongue, etc, a bit distracting.
• Downtown Charlottesville, and Staunton are both greatly overrated. Hippies that take themselves seriously colliding with yuppieville. At least Boulder has a sense of humor about it.
  
• South Court Inn was great, at least as good as the web site makes it look.
• Luray Caverns was a disappointment. This was a largely "dead" cave, with little evidence of any growing formations. Worse, a lot of the stones near the paths had obviously been broken by busy passing hands.
• Much more entertaining was the Dayton Farmer's Market. The wasn't much in the way of produce there that day, but a lot of baked goods, basic groceries, and gifts. And, a lot of traditionally dressed Mennonite families.
• The Victorian Inn provided a very good dinner. (We both had rack of lamb.) I was mildly peeved though that they were out of the more moderately priced red wines. I wound up getting their most expensive bottle. It wasn't much compared to what you'd pay in a big city, but still...
• The park was nice to look at at, but it was cold and windy up there that day. Here's one photo, but nothing of iconic proportions.