Ohio and Kentucky

Columbus: visit with Elise Shapiro (photos) and Beth, Harold, Adam, and Micah Berman

Cincinnati: visit with Diane Schneiderman and Mel Firestone and their Brittany Spaniel, Bruno;
walks around downtown: over Roebling Bridge, to National Underground Railroad Freedom Center (including a gospel choir), and to Clifton neighborhood

Over-the-Rhine: still in Cincinnati: a street fair including "Opera Dogs"

Freedom Quilts: Exhibit at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center

Kentucky: Kentucky Folk Art Center with exhibit of works by Charley, Noah, and Hazel Kinney

Blue Ridge Mountains, Virginia

Cascades: The trail in the Jefferson National Forest, Blue Ridge Mountains, near Blacksburg, Virginia, leads gently to a waterfall.

McAfee Knob: The Appalachian Trail through the Jefferson National Forest includes McAfee Knob (3.5 mile ascent of Catawba Mountain, gaining 1200 feet). We stayed with the Vandsburgers in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Sharp Top: The Sharp Top Trail, part of the Peaks of Otter, at milepost 86 of the Blue Ridge Parkway, is a 1.5 mile uphill climb to 360-degree vistas.

Poplar Forest: Thomas Jefferson's retirement home west of Lynchburg, Virginia.

Spy Rock: We hiked with Lucius Clay to perhaps to perhaps the best viewpoint in the central Blue Ridge,near the town of Montebello. The rock outcrop, at 3,980 feet elevation, provides a 360 degree panoramic view of numerous mountain summits. However, getting up onto the house-sized rock proved difficult; Lucius helped Finney. Thinking we had found a gentler way down, we bushwhacked through a rhododendron and huge fern forest (complete with bear scat) before rejoining the trail. When all danger seemed averted, we happened upon a rattlesnake!

Lynchburg and Manassas: a few views of Lynchburg, Virginia and of Manassas National Battlefield Park