Parades + Holidays + Caverns!

When Justin turned 29, he received passes to the Shenandoah Caverns Family of Attractions from Kim (who knew ever since visiting the site on a field trip that Justin would love the displays of Americana there). Recently, we finally made it up to the New Market area on a day trip--and it was a very pleasant one. New Market "feels" far enough from Roanoke to be a vacation.

The caverns have functioned as a show cave for over eighty years and are a great sight. A tour takes about an hour and is pretty stroller accessible. We've visited a number of caverns and enjoyed those trips, but the Shenandoah cave is a wonderful site for seeing a spectacular range of formations and "cave bacon" on a particularly impressive scale. From the caverns, exit to Main Street of Yesteryear to see mid-twentieth century storefront displays. There is a fanciful circus with many moving elements among other nostalgic scenes; one of the funniest is an assorted gathering of holiday figurines "looking for jobs." Do not miss a stop to the "parade museum" of American Celebration on Parade, a gathering of floats from such American institutions as the Rose Bowl Parade. Some elements move, some displays can be climbed, and we hear there are special holiday items at Christmas! Gift shops are available, and a new attraction known as the Yellow Barn may be worth a stop to you. To Kim's delight, there's also a display of vintage attraction memorabilia. Attraction tickets are all-inclusive "combination" tickets.

If you go, take a look at a map. Shenandoah Caverns will be easy to find right off the interstate, but you won't want to miss things nearby. You'll be within striking distance of DC and very near the Route 11 potato chip factory (we've got to go there sometime!), not to mention Staunton, Virginia. Justin would want to put in a good word for the state history park at the New Market Battlefield and the Green Valley Bookfair (when open) near Dayton. We had good luck planning our trip in consultation with Shenandoah Caverns's Allison.

Relevant Twitter Handle:
Caverns

Relevant Link:
Shenandoah Caverns

Homage to Johnny Appleseed

We'd like to suggest a Halterman side trip: Johnny Appleseed Restaurant in New Market, VA. It is one of those places we've always intended to stop on our journeys "up I-81," and on a recent outing to Shenandoah Caverns, we finally made it. The restaurant's exterior is somewhat famous; there's a large Johnny statue at the door that also graces the cover of Weird Virginia.

The restaurant, a family-oriented place inside a Quality Inn, has some standard-but-still-tasty fare but serves exceptional complimentary apple fritter bites as an appetizer. As you might expect, the decor is full of apples; uniquely, there is an interior wall made of apple crates. There's also a gift shop that sells postcards of the giant statue! In talking to the waitstaff, we learned that this location is the sole surviving establishment of a Johnny Appleseed chain and that it is locally-owned. For a friendly, casual meal with a side of nostalgia, we recommend it. The reasonably-priced restaurant is a good "stopping place location" on the Roanoke-to-DC drive and is near the major valley caverns.

Relevant Links:
Johnny Appleseed Restaurant