What do you do after a workday?

Both Kim and Justin had work commitments this weekend--Kim on Sunday and Justin on Saturday. So, a quick trip was in order. With all the working, we had to get out of town!

When we were dating, we bought year-long passes to Natural Bridge once. A drive there (just about 30 miles away) brings back memories and gets us out into the sunshine. We went to take Elijah on his first stroll to the bridge and took in the wax museum, too. The new ticket price structure makes it easy to enjoy a lot of the "components" of the area on one ticket in one day (including the toy museum, which is a nifty low-budget museum if there ever was one), but with a half-day only, we went just for the bridge and museum.

The wax museum is a classic hodge-podge of scenes from the Biblical to the historical to the folklore-related. Madame Tussauds it ain't: the figures are not of uniform proportions and some show signs of age. Classic local fun it is, complete with a wax figure factory exhibit in the basement you can tour. There are also some unexpected twists--like the figure of Bush that is now a "security guard" in one of the hallways. They have updated the Presidents exhibit with an Obama figure, and Doug Wilder is in the inauguration scene.

A walk to the bridge is always a lovely way to unwind. Kim vividly remembers a fifth grade field trip here and how she came around the corner expecting to see a bridge she could crawl through and saw this one, "higher than Niagara." Elijah, well, he was impressed with the running water, but he is just nine months old.

If you go, consider eating the buffet at the Natural Bridge Hotel and taking in Professor Cline's. When Elijah is over, we're hitting Dinosaur Kingdom!

Baby's First Book Fair

Oh, it's Green Valley Book Fair time! We went on opening day--busy but fun. Kim and Justin came away with lots of good regional titles from History Press and other treats, with Kim being especially pleased with some Road Food selections and some new board/picture books representing a whole host of cultures and concepts for Mr. Elijah's exploration. If you go this set of Book Fair dates, expect some new shelving sub-catgories--don't let them throw you off. For example, travel writing (downstairs, near architecture) is not with the travel guide books (upstairs, traditional location). We learned that Elijah has inherited his parents' cloak of invisibility when shopping in crowded locations, but hey, we always wanted to avoid being intrusive people who believe their stroller has the right of way in all circumstances, so it's all good.

We skipped our usual visit to the Dayton Farmer's Market and went searching for antique malls instead. We found Rocky's off I-81 (exit 235) and were not excited--lots of expensive items and glass/silver but little for our taste. The Factory Antique Mall in Verona (exit 227) was much, much more exciting, its happy-looking orange building being a bonus. We enjoyed extended time in a wonderful old book dealer, getting a "new" book on JP II and assorted other treasures from the kindly proprietor. Kim came away with a substantial number of new postcards, including foldouts for Jamestown and Bethlehem. There was a substantial amount of old paper to browse in this mall, and it was spacious with varied vendors--many of whom were on site and offering discounts. If you are travelling this way, we also recommend Alpha and Omega near Shenandoah Harley Davidson, but we didn't stop there today.

We ate at Rowe's (say Rawl's) in Staunton, one of Justin's favorites. If you're not familiar, it's a reasonably-priced, home cookin' kinda place that has been reviewed in publications like Savor and has its own cookbooks you can buy. Elijah recommends the exceptional mashed potatoes.

Roanoke 101

9 months is the appropriate age to start formally touring you local city, say us. Elijah made his first trek up Mill Mountain this weekend, including a drive by Mini Graceland. We walked out to the star, and he was very impressed with the view. It was quite clear--so clear that we could see the Salem flashlight (water tower).

We hit the zoo, of course. Elijah bought Justin family passes for Christmas and seemed to thoroughly enjoy looking at his stroller tray while there. He noticed the monkeys and the vultures most of all but was not very impressed with the goats. We would certainly like to see a book of zoo history (Kim's trying to get Justin to write it), as it is fascinating to hear stories of when the zoo was a "children's storybook zoo." The Zoo Choo still runs--we'll have to take Itty Bit on it later this year! There are no praire dogs anymore, but we did buy some praire dog bookmarks in the sparse gift shop.

We had dinner at Pitt Boss at Cave Spring, one of our new favorite restaurants. Jack and bleu sticks with spicy ranch, smoked turkey sandwich on a pretzel roll...only Cherry Coke could've made it yummier!