Shenandoah National Park

We started off the weekend by looking at some homes for rent in the Bethesda area on Friday evening. We found one that looks really nice and are pretty sure we'll put an application in for it on Monday (as long as no one else has beaten us to the punch). Here's a funny side note - the Realtor for the owner put a slideshow of the house on YouTube - but at least you can see the pictures there!

Saturday we woke up bright and early to rent a car and drive to Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. We drove all 105 miles of Skyline Drive. Along the way we saw lots of wildlife - lots of deer (including a fawn crossing the street with its mom), lots of hawks, a raccoon, a turkey, and Cayne even saw a Black Bear! The drive was beautiful and lots of fun to do. After all, who doesn't love windy and twisty mountain roads with over 70 overlooks?! Plus, there really wasn't a lot of traffic.

Along the way we stopped to hike down to Dark Hollow Falls, which is about a 70 foot waterfall. The key thing to notice is that the hike was down to the falls, meaning after about 0.7 miles hiking down a steep hill, we then had to climb 0.7 miles out. It was actually a really nice trail and not too strenuous... and the falls were great!

We spent the night in Wayesboro at a really nice Residence Inn and drove home this morning. We enjoyed driving back home through the valleys and looking up at the mountains we drove through the day before. Cayne even drove almost the whole way, making me take us back into Reagan National to return the car.

We spent the evening filling out rental applications. Cayne had a great time trying to figure out how to answer the questions that don't translate to the type of information available in New Zealand but he did it the best he could figure out. We'll see what they think later this week!