Luray Caverns

Despite living less than two hours from Luray Caverns for the past dozen years, we'd never been there before!

I don't know why we waited so long to visit!  First of all, I love the words  "stalactite" and "stalagmite."  Such great words!  I wasn't exactly sure what to expect, but it was actually quite similar to Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota, which we visited many moons ago.  Just beautiful! 

However, I thought the admission/tour was a little pricey ($26.00 per person...really?!?) and frankly, our tour guide was terrible.  In her introduction, she spoke far too quickly and was very difficult to understand.  I really can't share a single thing I learned because there were at least forty people on the same tour, and we did not hear a word the tour guide said.  We stayed at the back of the pack because we dawdled along to take photos, so we had no hope of hearing her.  Had there not been SO many people on our tour, we might have been able to hear what she was saying, but no such luck.  Even if we had been close enough to her, there was no guarantee we'd have understood anything she said based on how incoherent she was during her introduction.

Oh, well!  We let nature speak for itself!

Enjoy the photos!

Happy Tails to you!

Yankee Stadium!

If you've read my previous posts about baseball games, you already know that C and I traveled around the country and saw a game in all 30 MLB stadiums.  Since completing that list, some of the stadiums have been replaced, and so we are slowly making our way back to the new stadiums one at a time.  In 2013, we went to a Nationals game in Washington, DC, and in 2014, we went to a Pirates game in Pittsburgh.

One question we are often asked is, "What is your favorite stadium?"  There are some very nice ballparks that we thoroughly enjoyed, but to be honest, there are also some truly awful ones.  In my opinion, one of the very best, if not my absolute number one favorite, is Camden Yards.  I say that not because it is the closest thing we have to a "hometown" American League park; I've loved it since before we moved to this area.

So when we had the opportunity to go to an Orioles game last weekend with my brother and sister-in-law, we jumped at it.  Unfortunately, the weather did not look promising, and because of a thunderstorm, we feared the game might be cancelled.  However, luck was on our side and the game only ended up being delayed by an hour, and once the storm passed, the weather was practically perfect for a night game.  Our seats were on the first base side, in row 2, but no one sat in front of us, so our view was pretty spectacular.

While we waited for the game to begin, I did a quick photo collage and posted it to Instagram.  In between innings, some Instagram photos were shown up on the jumbotron, and mine was one of them!  I felt way more pleased and excited than I probably should have…but I was seriously thrilled to see my photo up there!  It really does not take much to make me giddy.

This weekend, we headed up to New York to see at game at the new Yankee Stadium.  I had given C the tickets for one of his birthday gifts, and we'd been looking forward to the game for several weeks.  We left very early on Saturday morning and arrived in NYC around 10:30 am, which left plenty of time to wander around the stadium before the 1:00 start time.

A lovely sunrise to start off our trip!

As you can see, the weather was gorgeous and the ballpark is absolutely beautiful!

There was this really cool wall of player photos, that changed from photos to silhouettes as you walked by...I was a little obsessed with it.

The game itself was a bit of a letdown – the Yankees ended up losing to the Rangers 15-4.  We actually left during the 7^th inning because it was clear that the game had gotten out of hand and we were far from the only people doing so – there seemed to be a mass exodus out of the stadium when we were leaving!

One thing that I thought was super cute was when the grounds crew came out to clean up the infield and "YMCA" was played to get the crowd dancing.  It's hard to tell from this photo, since I was caught off-guard, but the grounds crew dropped their equipment and spelled out "YMCA" during the song.  Adorable!

One thing I did not like was that my Instagram photo of the field did NOT make it onto the jumbotron at Yankee Stadium.  Camden Yards is responsible for my unrealistic expectations that my photo would be displayed!  Apparently word had not made it from Baltimore to NYC that my Instagram photos are jumbotron-worthy.  Or perhaps I was not clever enough with my hashtags.  I guess we'll never know.

On Sunday, we drove up to Tuxedo Park for a quick visit with family and if I am being honest, I did not want to leave because it is just so peaceful there.  We drove my YaYa home to his new retirement community in NJ before heading home.  On our way, we stopped at a rest area in Maryland and grabbed at bite to eat at Earl of Sandwich, which may not seem like a very big deal, but we LOVE Earl of Sandwich!  It's the little things in life, right?!?

When we came out of the rest area, the sky was so beautiful that I had to take a photo of it:

Yep - that's the moon!

We got home around 9:30 pm - definitely a quick trip…only 40 hours from start to finish!  We had a great time, visited a gorgeous stadium, and spent time with family!

Six more new stadiums to go!

Happy Tails to you!