Manasas, Virginia and a great visit!

Greenville Farm and Family Campground
Beautiful Sunny Days

We made the short trip from College Park, Maryland to Haymarket, Virginia on Wednesday morning. The Greenville Farm is a working farm complete with soybeans, cows and silos.  The campground appears to be an afterthought for a good use for extra land.  It is a basic camp, but has everything we needed.  It was very quiet and peaceful.

We enjoyed a wonderful dinner at my cousins beautiful home in Manasas and really got to relax and catch up.  The great thing about family is many years can go by but it's like a minute passed since you last saw them.  We certain enjoyed Denise's company.

Thursday we headed over the the Air and Space Museum at Dulles.  It was amazing and I enjoyed every minute.  Eric enjoyed the War planes and I enjoyed the space program exhibit.  We saw the Discovery Space Shuttle on the launch pad in 2010 and it is now housed here.  The size is mind boggling.  You look behind you and there is the Mercury Capsule that carried one astronaut in very tight quarters.  Amazing!

Mercury Capsule

Gemini Capsule

Heat tiles on the Shuttle

The engines

Discovery

The Enola Gay

The Concorde

The capsule that Felix Baumgartner leapt from 

Saturday was a sunny beautiful day with not a cloud in the sky.  We ventured down to Mt. Vernon to George Washington's estate.  We got there early to avoid the crowds which were plentiful later in the day.  We brought the pups and Denise watched over them while we did the short Mansion tour.  No photos are allowed inside.  It was beautiful.  I was most impressed with the gardens.  You can buy small plants from the gardens and I would have loved that, but I don't think I could keep it alive across the country.  Denise and I enjoyed roasted apples dipped in honey for a snack.  They were good and warded off starvation.

After we wandered about for awhile, we were starving.  We got our names on the list for an outdoor table at Mt. Vernon Inn for lunch.  The pups could stay with us while we ate.  We ordered three appetizers, three entrees, three soups, and three glasses of wine.  We ate it all! Delicious food and I would definitely recommend.  We took the scenic route home and enjoyed Denise's hot tub and nice wine.  So relaxed, I slept like a rock when we got back to our coach.

Sunday we headed to Antietam for the bloodiest day of the Civil War.  The leaves were beautiful and the battlefield was peaceful.  

We headed over the Harper's Ferry for a quick lunch and to wander the little town and see where the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers merge.  What a neat place this is.  The Appalachian Trail passes through here and it is home to the US Armory taken over by Abolitionist John Brown.   He wanted to take the 100,000 rifles and give them to slaves in Virginia.  He never made it out of the Armory.

We so enjoyed our weekend and I am going to miss my cousin.  It was nice having someone to talk to and someone my age around.  Tomorrow we head further south so I can visit the Virginia Quilt Museum and Eric can enjoy the Virginia Military Institute.