Three day weekends are the best - and this Labor Day weekend was no exception! Ryan and I were able to relax and really enjoy some down time, but also spent plenty of time getting outdoors and making memories (even though it was in the 90's every day).
We had dinner out on Friday night and then on Saturday, we headed to Great Meadows Event Center for the 49th Annual Virginia Scottish Games! My family has attended the games a few times now and I was so excited to introduce Ryan to all the delightful Scottish things - I think he enjoyed himself!
We were able to see all sorts of birds - owls, hawks, falcons and plenty of little Scottish dogs too! We met the two Scotties above named Drogon and Rhaegal (someone was a Game of Thrones fan) and watch some pup racing! We sat in on a Gaelic lesson... and I don't feel like I learned much because the language is so hard to pick up!
We explored the vendors and while I found plenty of things I could have bought (tea towels.. shortbread.. a kilt... jewelry... the list goes on and on), we kept our purchases to food! I got a lovely cranachan and Ryan got some kind of wild potato chip swirl thing that honestly looked like a wild mushroom on a plate, ha-ha! We arrived as soon as things started at 9 AM - so once we'd watched the Clan Parade and the Opening Ceremonies; with the heat creeping towards the mid-90's - we headed for the house!
We made a Costco run and then took it easy for the rest of our Saturday afternoon and evening - we cooked dinner, watched a little college football and watched Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
Sunday was another warm day - and yet again, we made plans for the great outdoors! We went to church and then had lunch with our sweet friends Willie & Angie, before heading to the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley for the Nature Connects Exhibit!
The Nature Connects exhibit showcases sculptures built from Lego bricks, stationed in the gardens of the Glen Burnie House, which is a part of the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley! I've seen the exhibit before in years past and when I realized that September third and fourth were the final two days - I was eager to go check it out - even if that meant exploring the gardens at 2:00 in the afternoon when it was 95 degrees out!
This year's sculptures were of animals that are currently listed on the endangered species list - and most of the sculptures took hundreds of hours to build! I loved seeing the bright colors of the Lego bricks interspersed with all the greenery and in some places; where the drought we are in hadn't sapped them, the bright blooms of the flowers!
I am still not sure what sculpture was my favorite - I really loved the snow leopard and the polar bear! I wanted the bat suspended in the entryway of the museum to be much larger than it actually was, ha-ha! And man, wouldn't it have been nice if we'd been able to look at the sculptures when it wasn't so flaming hot out? Probably, but honestly I just enjoyed getting the chance to amble through the garden with my love and look at all the beauty - both man-made and God-breathed.
We were able to pop into the Glen Burnie House for a few minutes - but I didn't get pictures while inside the house! We were mostly just thrilled for a few minutes of air conditioning in between making our way through the gardens and peeking at all the sculptures, ha-ha! We also liked the bamboo garden as well - it provided tons of shade, which was a blessing on this blistering day!
Our last stop before we headed for the house was the museum itself - to make sure we saw the last sculpture, which was a family of bats! We also quickly perused the exhibits in the museum but didn't hang around too long - we had left the house at 10 AM and still needed to make one final stop - so we headed out pretty quickly after seeing the interiors of the museum!
I'm so glad we were able to get the chance to see the exhibit - and I was also so glad when we finally got home around 4:30 on Sunday! We spent the rest of the late afternoon reading on the deck; the shade and breeze made it manageable to be outdoors, even if it was still warm! We had dinner and started watching Only Murders in the Building - but all in all - we just enjoyed relaxing and looked forward to not having to wake up early on Monday!
Monday - I slept in until 8:15 - what an absolute gift! It was so nice to have a slow start to the day after August was such a hectic month for us! After coffee and breakfast, we set off on another adventure! We headed into the mountains to hike to Eagle Rock - and man was I glad the whole trail was very shady!
The trail was right at the Virginia/West Virginia state line and I have to say that it offered so much pay off for very little effort - which is what I was looking for on a day when it was 96 outside, but we still wanted to get in some outdoor activity! We made sure we had plenty of water and we even packed our lunch, knowing that there was a bench at the overlook spot - and off we set on the trail!
The trail was dusty and often rocky at places and for the most part - gradually went up all the way to the lookout point - it was never steep and wasn't a hard trail by any means! While the marker at the top says the trail is 0.8 of a mile to the lookout, we clocked it at closer to a mile but either way, the views were incredible and we were able to plop down on the bench, eat our sandwiches and for a while - we had the whole mountainside to ourselves!
After we spent plenty of time exploring the outcrops, taking pictures and just generally being goofy - we headed off back down the trail and all in all - our hike to the top, our lunch and our hike back down took about an hour and a half! Since it was Labor Day and we were supposed to be taking a break from laboring - we were honestly just bums the rest of the day, and that was really nice!
What a wonderful long weekend it was - now then, when is the next long weekend? Ha-ha!
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