Photos from back East

I just returned from a trip to Virginia, where I grew up, to visit family and a handful of friends. The bonus for this particular trip was that we rented a car! I’ve only ever borrowed my mom’s car during my visits, but this time I was allowed more freedom and time to explore. Here are just a few highlights from the trip.

We started with a visit to Luray Caverns, one of the most popular caverns in the country. I have been there plenty of times and only cared to take a few iphone shots… sorry, no photos to post from there. What I really wanted to do was go through the big hedge maze right next door! It’s the sort of childish thing I like to do. 🙂

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The next place we explored was downtown Richmond, my home town. I took Dave to some historical places in the city, and along the James River. That’s where I took this tree photo. You don’t see a lot of ivy growing all over trees in WA. At least I’ve never noticed.

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Next, we took off for D.C. so that I could visit a couple of good friends, and so that Dave could check out the museums. I didn’t have time for any museums, but I did manage to get some photos of the cherry blossoms by the monuments.

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After that we were free to meander back down to Richmond at a more leisurely pace. We decided to visit Assateague Island National Seashore and Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. You would think I would have known about this place, growing up only about 4 hours away from it. Had I known about it before leaving for our trip, I would have definitely brought my telephoto lens! Oh well. Anyway, Assateague offers beautiful scenery and wild ponies that roam the marshes. I was told that I got pretty lucky with how close they got to me. A few of them came within 5 feet, but I was too nervous to get a better perspective than from my raised walkway. As wild animals, they’ve been known to charge, after all. But really, I’m just a chicken.

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Every summer there is an event during which the ponies swim to Chincoteague from Assateague. The ponies we saw at Chincoteague were fenced in and pretty far away. While we were there, we walked a wildlife trail where I saved a turtle from being stuck in the long grass. We also visited an old lighthouse, as you can see.

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And now, vacation is over. Back to business! The next thing on the agenda is my next stock photo shoot. Don’t forget to make your stock theme suggestions over on my Facebook Page!