Apparently my trip in Virginia was incredible. It was a peaceful place, the people were religious in a nice kind way, they were kind people that were very friendly and preferred USA flags and not Confederate flags on their property. Though I should speak of the places I visited with my family, and my exciting experiences there.

Day 1: Luray Caverns & Hedge Maze/Garden

We went to the town of Luray, location of the Luray Caverns. The Luray Caverns were a interesting place. It was filled with many things you expect in humungous caverns over 30 feet underground. It had stalactites and stalagmites. It had some crystals, but not many, and numerous mineral formations, some had entertaining shapes, others were just plain neat. I noticed a series of crystals in one spot that were under sedimentary rock, they were many forms of quartz. I also noticed a few bones. They were located in two places. One place had a tiny bone buried in some old sediment that obviously broke from age. The bone broke with it. Another spot had two bones, both slightly bigger, almost as fat as my thumb. The were mostly intact, but couldn't move out of the ground. They remind me the bones that are in a drumstick and wing of fried chicken. I talked with one guide of these things and she said there have never been things living in the caves other than algae. I believed that. She said no fossils were ever found and no one left things here. Didn't believe that. She said no crystals existed too... funny... I should upload the photo me and my brother Sean took of the crystals. Later near the end of the cavern guides, another women. She was opposite of the other women I talked to in appearance and in information. We talked for almost 5 minutes. I mentioned what I saw as well as my knowledge on such things and why they fascinated me. She mentioned things on what I saw and why she liked the caves so much. Apparently she said fossils and crystals have been found before, but fossils were rare and small, and all had supposedly been found and taken. Crystals used to be many in the caves, but lots have been stolen over the past years, and before that most were gathered for the gift shops. Apparently she also lives in Luray. Has many jobs. Resident 'geek' apparently. Just like me in Bayville. I bought two souvenirs at the gift shop. One was a quartz crystal pendant, no chain or nothing for a necklace though, 99 cents. The other was a huge pyrite chunk, smoothed on half a size, many large nice well maintained formations on another, the other two parts beaten a bit. $4.99. Much fun. Over 2 hours of sightseeing.

The Hedge Maze/Garden we went to afterward. It was entertaining. I got lost twice. At least I never used the 5 boards the existed in the place on doors used by employees. The 5 boards were hint boards used for emergencies in case people either get lost or need help finding the 'goals', 4 ink stamps which if all are found and used on the paper given before entering gives a discount on all wearable goods and drinking objects in the gift shops. At the gift shop I used my discount to get a water bottle. Apparently I got an extra discount on the water bottle due to it being summer. The shop and hedge-maze has different events and discounts on the maze and store based on each season. Much fun. An hour of fun to be honest.

Day 2: Luray Museums and Mining Company

There is two museums by the Caverns. One a colonial museum and another one on transportation means used from year 1700-1950. We visited the one museum on transportation, apparently a lot of transportation means still used horses and the like to pull even after cars were invented, and bought, but they slowed down and then faded away during the late 1800's. Cars existed for a long time, back to the latter half of the 1700's with some unique ones, and the ones most identifiable during the late 1800's. The electric cars that were used during WW1 & 2 in the USA were incredibly and disturbingly efficient and modern compared to the ones we use now, but then it did say they used electric cars for over 50 years due to Gas Rationing which restricted use of Gas to military and government and left civilians both rich and poor using highly advanced electric cars and less advanced but decent steam cars.. About half an hour of sightseeing. In that one museum.

There is one museum opposite the Caverns by less than 10 minutes of walking, but my lazy companions wanted a 1 minute drive instead. We did the museum which was on colonial life there which is supposedly completely different and free to visit if you got a ticket to the caverns (we did go to the caverns btw with ticket). It was a good trip, mentioned half of the presidents, the horrors of the civil war, and life between settlers, natives, and later, the south and slaves. It pleasantly never mentioned the greatness of the confederacy and evils of the union that a stereotypical of southerners, or the inferiority of any non-white peoples spoken of, but instead talked good of all peoples mentioned in various ways. An half hour of sight seeing if you don't obsess over guns and civil war stuff in the shop.

Day 2: Night

We went to Shenandoah National Park. We drove mostly, but stopped at 4 over-looks. Long drops. Noticed wild strawberries, wild raspberries, and unedible mushrooms as we went and looked around each over-look. On the first&second stop noticed an exotic flower, a Blue Alpine Wildflower. 2nd stop also had some people from France having a picnic with tea on a large pile of rocks. They were chatting how they must be the only french people there, and they said it in English. On the third stop a nice Indian couple we took a picture for of them and to give them when they asked, and they took a picture of us for us afterward, and we didn't even ask, they insisted, so nice of them! We got lost trying to get out of the park, which was mainly three huge mountains on a line north to south.

We went to several Restaurants as well. In order to visit:
Artisan's Grill - Day 1 Dinner&Desert
Uncle Buck's House - Day 2 Breakfast
Shenandoah Inn & Kitchen - Day 2 Dinner&Desert

Artisan's Grill was a place that seemed to have a fancy name and fancy decoration, with a fancy history and cheap but high quality food, common folk and wealthy coming in and out, and was a good time. I had Fried Calamari for Appetizer, Salad for a side, and Jumbo Crab Cakes for entree. The Calamari was plain, maybe because the best tasting part, the tentacles, are not served by them, and the head, the meatiest and most enjoyable textured part, also in not served. I've never had a salad taste so good. The tomatoes are amazing in the salads there. And even more impressive is how fresh was the veggies. The crab cakes, were... disturbingly... more amazing than in New Jersey, which is famous for two food things, Tomatoes, and Crabs. They did Crabs better than us, that's an achievement worth country wide notice. My advice, eat everything here as much as possible.

Uncle Buck's serves breakfast and lunch 18/6 apparently (closed on Sundays). It is a fancy country place with cheap county food and even cheaper quality with high prices and oddball customers. I had the Uncle Ben's Benedict. It's basically a eggs Benedict. It was pretty good with some things, but the home fries on the side were more like mashed potatoes and the Canadian bacon as it is called outside the NE was... flavorless. The eggs were decent, they were poached, but like... in a egg shape and poached... which meant they must have had a special way of doing it. My companions made fun of scrapple and grits for the rest of the entire trip. Maybe its because scrapple and grits tastes bad to all them except my brother Sean. My advice, avoid Uncle Buck's at all costs...

Shenandoah Inn&Kitchen is actually a fancy establishment, done at home in a slightly wealthy nice looking but big built friendly fellow. I ordered alot and so did my family. Everyone agreed everything was great, but my Aunt Ava complained about the desert and back at the motel, oddly the owner, who I liked, for the things he did and said, but we interpreted his behavior differently. I had the Grilled Calamari for appetizer, which was quite wholesome, and unlike Artisan's Grill, the tentacles and head were served with the torso aka the rings, along with a tasty & spicy red sauce and garbanzos. The entree was Seared Sea Scallops which came with various mushrooms in an oily cheese sauce. The desert was a Green Apple Strudel, which had a plain flour crust that had a mild sweetness with Vanilla Ice cream on top. This place is obviously the most ideal place to eat at in all of Luray, and maybe Virginia for all I know. The talkative owner is also the manager and resident and one of three waiters. He is also very good at small talk, jokes, and various other ways of pleasing guests like his courtesy of offering us another bottle of wine cause the one we got was over half used, and also a decent amount of refills and confirmation on our pleasure with each new course.

Day 3:

Lastly, trip home had a bizarre event. A truck with a cargo of monster sized cantaloups. These fruits were in a giant cardboard crate secured by a single giant green rope. One cantaloup flew out of the box at a bump towards our stuffed SUV we rented, but luckily it hit in front of the tired going SPLOOSH! Cleaning and accident fees avoided!

I am home. The day after tomorrow is September 5th, my birthday, yay! I may not be able to talk to anyone until after my birthday. Until then!