My husband and I never really took a vacation together this
year. We did a few nights with my family
after Baby T was born, and we will be going to stay with family again over
Thanksgiving. I also took some small
trips on my own to see various family and friends. I never took an actual full blown non-family oriented vacation
though, with or without him. When a couple
of friends booked a stay at the Wintergreen Resort and invited us to come
along, it seemed like a great weekend getaway at a fairly reasonable price. We signed right up. Our plan going into the weekend was to spend
part of the weekend with our friends and part of it on our own. I think we ended up with a good balance of
activities and down time as well as socialization with friends and time on our
own.
Wintergreen Resort is an absolutely beautiful mountain
resort that I would definitely recommend.
All of the staff was very friendly and helpful everywhere we went. Our room was basic, but clean and well
maintained. The rest of the resort was
also clean, maintained, and welcoming. We
were there off-season, after the golf course had closed and before the skiers
arrived. Because of that, some of the
shops, restaurants, and amenities were closed or open shorter hours. Still, there was the availability of a few
restaurants, shops, tennis, the aquatics center, the discovery center, a spa, and
the beautiful mountainside including overlooks, waterfalls, and trails galore. I cannot really comment on much outside of
the food and the nature, because we never visited many of the different
offerings. I do hope to go back in the
future, spend a few more days than we did this trip, and really try to get the
most out of the resort.
Some Quick Restaurant Reviews:
- The Edge: This is a
casual restaurant on the resort that is open late every day of the week that we
ate at twice. I had an Italian panini
one night and the chicken tender basket the second night. Both meals were simple, but delicious.
- The Copper Mine Bistro: Another
casual resort restaurant, where we ate Sunday breakfast. There was a good sized buffet with hot and
cold options. I ate way too much because
I could not decide between all the yummy dishes. I wish we could have tried this restaurant
for dinner because it has a tapas menu, but alas its hours did not mesh with
our schedule this time around.
- The Market at Wintergreen:
This is a combination gas station, corner grocery store, and deli. You can order pizza or deli sandwiches along
with buying some prepared foods, snacks, and beverages. I had a Cliffhanger sandwich that I spread
over two meals because it was so big. It
was deliciously made with high quality Boar’s Head roast beef, sharp cheddar,
crisp apple slices, and horseradish sauce.
- Blue Mountain Brewery:
This is a local brewery where we ate lunch on Saturday. I do not drink beer, so I cannot comment on
their alcoholic offerings, but I did enjoy a pizza starring bratwurst, apple,
& onion that was quite tasty. This place
was really nice, but it was incredibly crowded and parking was rather difficult.
- Blue Toad Cidery:
This is another local brewery. It
was not nearly as crowded and had a nice subdued atmosphere to just relax and enjoy. The bar staff was very friendly,
giving us recommendations and information on other local places to visit. Unfortunately I did not much care for their
ciders. I tried a sampler of eight or nine
and only really liked two (Irish and Pineapple). On a positive note, I absolutely loved the Irish cider. Now I want to explore the world of Irish
ciders and taste what else is out there.
Saturday morning, my husband and I went hiking. It was the best hike I have taken yet. We bought the hiking guide available from the
resort, which allowed us to find a moderately difficult trail that was
relatively close to our building, The Laurel Ridge Loop. We did have some trouble finding and staying
on the path, but that just made the trip more exciting. Our guide vaguely indicated the trailhead was
near the parking lots, but it took us a good fifteen minutes searching to find
the actual sign near the road below the lots.
Once we were on the path, we followed the yellow blazes down a fairly
steep and rocky hill. At the bottom of
the hill we came to a plank across the stream, so we crossed knowing from the
map that we should be intersecting a stream on our route. On the other side of the stream, we ran
across several downed trees that blocked the trail in front of us. We picked our way through slowly, lost site
of the remnants of the trail, and had some difficulty finding the next trail
sign that our map indicated should have only been a short distance from the
stream. Luckily, I spotted
something that looked to be a man-made bench in the distance. Upon reaching it, we discovered the trail
sign along with a sign indicating that the path we just came down was
closed. Apparently, we should not have
crossed the stream where we did, but instead should have followed it a ways before
coming to a second plank further down where the trail was cleared of
debris. Now back on the trail, we
climbed a small hill and crossed a road. On
the far side of the road, we faced a very steep climb up a rocky mountainside. It was a strenuous climb over boulders big
and small. We were so focused on
climbing that we eventually forgot to track the yellow blazes and ended up in
some random driveway. We chose to not go
back down to find the end of the trail, but instead just followed the road back
to our building. This hike was
exhausting, but it was so much fun to do the more challenging terrain.
As we head into winter, I doubt we will do much hiking. I am not comfortable with driving in winter
conditions to where the trails are, especially into the higher elevations where
roads become difficult more quickly. I
also do not feel I am up to handling colder climates and more obscure
paths. I will stick to urban hiking
around the neighborhood as the weather allows.
In the meantime, I think the winter is a good time to start planning how
to increase my hiking activity for next year.
I want to research some new options, including maybe a few more weekend
getaways. I also want to look into some
wilderness survival training, so I can become better equipped to take on more
challenging trips.
Trip Spending Total: A
lot – Resort studio room $163.58/night (fall special for pay 2 nights, get 1
free), trail guide $3.00, plus all the various meals and snacks
See you next week!
Here are some pictures from the hike.
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