Almost Heaven, West Virginia...

We woke up Monday, November 20th and had breakfast in the hotel with our vouchers.  I caught the sunrise over the river from the window of our room.  The desk clerk told us that there was a farmer's market at the end of Capitol Street.  He thought it opened at 9:00 am, so we walked there after breakfast.  Unfortunately, it did not open until 10 am and so we were too early.  We decided to walk on to the capitol building and take a tour.  On the way to the market, we happened up a pedestrian walkway in which they were putting up Christmas trees decorated by various organization in Charleston.  It was a very pretty area.  A little further on we found the historic marker for the location of the first capitol buildings in Charleston (more on that later).

The view of sunrise for our window

Another view

Pedestrian walkway with trees

Sculptures along the walkway

The row a trees along with shops and restaurants

Rubber duck tree

More trees decorated

Pink sponge lungs decorated the Ear, Nose, and Throat Doctors Office

Historic marker for the First State Capitol

Capitol Market

Capitol Market from the front

We happened to pass by the Clay Center for Arts and Science.  It was a large building with a planetarium, theater, and art museum.  We walked up Quarrier Street.  We saw many beautiful old houses.  We stopped to talk to a man and he said the street is a part of a national historic registry.  The houses must be maintained in accordance with established guidelines.

  

Historic Quarrier Road House

Historic Quarrier Road House

Clay Arts and Science Center

We next headed through Capitol Circle where there was a war memorial and then on into the capital.  The capitol building is and u-shaped.  We enter in the west wing and made our way to the center of the u and the rotunda.  We needed to wait about 20 minutes for our tour, so we went to see the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.  This area is in the east wing on the third floor and is not a part of the tour.  They are currently in the process of creating an interactive learning center for young people to learn about how the appeals court process works.  

The capitol building is fairly large and houses a lot more of the state employees.  The rotunda area and the areas around it are made of white marble from Vermont, which made the interior brighter and cheerier than other capitals we have visited.  Our guide told use about the 6 different capitol buildings that have house the West Virginia capital.  West Virginia became a state in 1863 when separated from Virginia during the Civil War.  The capital building switch several times between Wheeling and Charleston until the people of the state voted to keep it in Charleston.  Doing to the switches and two fires, there were 6 capital buildings with the current building finished in 1924.  The architect was Cass Gilbert and his designs include Palace of Fina Arts -- St. Louis Art Museum (Expo Building 1904), Minnesota State Capitol -- St. Paul (1905), the Woolworth Building -- New York City (1913), and the United States Supreme Court Build -- Washington DC (1935) to name a few.

The construction of the present capitol took eight years to complete at a cost of just under $10 million.  The capitol holds 530,000 square feet of floor space and 333 rooms in its main unit and two wings.  The building encompasses more than 14 acres of floor space.  Two thirds of the interior consist of marble. The walls are made of Imperial Danby, and the floors are a combination of white Vermont marble and dark Italian travertine.  The Rotunda features a chandelier hanging from a 54-foot brass and bronze chain. The 4,000-pound chandelier is eight feet in diameter, made of 10,080 pieces of Czechoslovakian crystal, and illuminated by 96 light bulbs. (From the State Capitol Tour Book)

The use of white marble in the main portion of the "U" gives a very light feel.  It's not dark and heavy like many state capitols that we have visited.  The "U" was built in three stages with the two separate wings coming first and the piece connecting the two wings.

The exterior of the Capitol uses buff Indiana limestone and the dome on top is 293-feet tall which is five feet taller than the dome of the United States Capitol.  The tastefully ornate dome is covered in copper and gold leaf.  There is an eagle on the top of the 25-foot spire.  We enjoyed the simplicity and elegance of the design of the Capitol Building and the senate chamber.  The legislative chambers are currently closed to remodeling and we weren't able to see those.

War Memorial

Rotunda Dome

Carvings on the ceiling representing tree leaves of WV

Czechoslovakian Crystal Chandalier

Senate chamber

Dome from second floor

Rotunda Christmas Tree

Christmas Decoration

White Marble

Almost Heaven, West Virginia Photo Spot

Front of the Capitol Building

We took the 2-mile walk back to the car on a trail along the river.  We enjoyed seeing the houses along the way and the friendliness of the people we met.  Then it was off to Independence Kentucky and visit with my niece, her husband, and their to precious daughters.

Across from the capitol

Historic markers line the river walk

The governor's mansion

Historic house along the river walk

Fortieth...

Sunday, we left Charlottesville after lunch.  The apartment we were staying in was a one bedroom with plenty of space, but it did not take long to clean up.  However, we weren't in a hurry to leave, because we only had a four hours drive today.  

The apartment in Charlottesville (First floor by the car)

It was our 40th anniversary and Thom's mom had suggested we stay at the Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs which was along the way, but instead we opted to take a hike along the Greenbrier River on the Greenbrier River Trail.  It is a picturesque 78 mile trail of which we walked a few miles before turning back. 

Picture from our trail walk

 

The Greenbrier Resort By Richard Rosendale - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, 

I looked the Greenbrier and found this photo.  It looks pretty fancy for in the middle of nowhere West Virginia.  But we did not even drive by, but instead headed on to Charleston and the Four Points Sheraton; downtown and right on the river.  We arrived just before dusk in time for our anniversary dinner.  One downside of arriving on Sunday was that many restaurants were closed, but we decided to go to the Pies and Pints as it actually makes vegan personal pizzas.  

The view from our room at the Four Points

As we drove in earlier, we found Charleston to be a nice looking city and our walk confirmed that the downtown area had some interesting architecture, clean streets and sidewalks, and overall charming feel to it.  We didn't see too many open restaurants or people until we neared the Pies and Pints.  There were several restaurants open in this area and Pies and Pints was doing a good business.  We had about a 15 minute wait, but it gave us time to look through the menu.  We had a nice Greek salad and personal pizzas.  We even had leftover pizza for the car ride the next day.

Public Library

Charleston has a population of about 48,000 and the capitol building lies about 2 miles east of the downtown area.  The downtown area is built along the Kanawha River which is a tributary of the Ohio River.  Our room in the Four Points Sheraton looked down to river.

Three Days in Charlottesville...

We had nice weather while in Charlottesville.  On our first full day (Thursday), it was sunny and in the 70s and it was only a short walk to the University of Virginia (UVA)  campus.  We took a historical tour of the original campus area.  Our tour started at the Rotunda which originally was the library designed by Thomas Jefferson.  Our tour guide was a volunteer student from the university guide service.  Students that give tours can choose topics which they want to emphasize.  Our tour guide talked a lot about the inequities that have occurred in UVAs history. She talked about the use of slaves not only to build the early campus building, but to handle cleaning, the groundskeeping, cooking, and laundry.  While emancipation ended the use of slaves at the university, students of color were not admitted to UVA until the 1950s.  UVA was not a co-ed university until 1970 and it was basically a white man’s university for much of its history.  Interestingly, the female population has grown to 55% while the black population is only 6%.  She also talked about eugenic research that was done at the university in the early 20th century with to prove a genetic difference that proved blacks were inferior to white people.

The dome of the Rotunda

Inside view of Rotunda

View of the classroom and residents halls from the Rotunda

Walkways along the Rotunda

University Chapel

View of the Rotunda

Side view of Rotunda

Front view of Rotunda

Old Campus Buildings

St. Paul Memorial Church on UVA Campus

Campus building

The original buildings are still a part of the campus and the original student rooms are now used as honors housing for 4^th year students.  The rooms are now single rooms, however; bathroom facilities are shared and students can be seen wandering around in robes going to and from the showers.

Just a short walk away from the Rotunda is the Memorial to Enslaved Labors, memorializing the lives of the slave laborers at UVA.

Memorial for Enslaved Laborers

After our tour of the campus, we walked to the historic downtown area of Charlottesville and the pedestrian street.  We were told that when they decided to create a pedestrian street, it was modelled after the pedestrian area of Burlington, Vermont.  It was nicer than Burlington’s as it had full sized trees and wide areas with outdoor seating for restaurants.  We ate outside at th e Botanical Plant-based Fare.  They had many great vegan options and we both had rice bowls that were quite good.  

Pedestrian Mall Downtown Charlottesville

Pedestrian Mall

The Paramount Theater on the Pedestrian Mall

Lunch at Botanical Plant-Based Fare

After eating, we continue our walking tour of Charlottesville.  We  were looking for the Art Park, but we didn't find the exhibits.  We instead walked by the Daughters of the Zion Cemetery.  The around 2-acre burial ground was established in 1973 by members of the Daughters of Zion Society (an African American benevolent women's organization).  The cemetery fell into disrepair and the city took over it's upkeep.  In 2015, the Preservers of the Daughters of Zion Cemetery made it their mission to restore the cemetery.

The historical marker for the cemetery

That evening we went back to the pedestrian area to the old theater built in the early 1900s.  We saw “Good” which is a play with David Tenant in it. The show was the filming of a live production.  It was well done, but it was about Nazi Germany and it was a somber show.

 

Inside the Paramount

Pedestrian Mall at Night

Restaurant on the Pedestrian Mall

Paramount Theater at Night

Our next day, we did a shorter campus walk and saw areas we hadn’t seen on Thursday.  We also walked in a wooded area on a knoll overlooking the campus.  The area was called O’Hill and has a variety of trails for walking, running, and mountain biking.  The land is owned by the university and we took a trail that to the observatory at the top.  The observatory was opened to the public this evening, but the weather forecast was for clouds and it was already cloudier while we were there.  We continued our walk through another part of the campus.  Many of the campus residential areas reminded us of Miami of Ohio (where Thom and I met), with the brick buildings and light butterscotch yellowy trim and the open quad areas between the residential halls.  The campus is pretty, especially the older areas. 

 

The lawn and the Rotunda 

Edgar Allen Poe was once a student of UVA

Residential area of campus

Older residential area

Newer residential area

O'Hill Hiking Trail

UVA Observatory

Newer dorm

UVA Football Stadium

Interior of Football Stadium

The next day we left around 9 am for Shenandoah National Park at the start of the Blue RidgeMountain Parkway for a 4.2-mile hike to Humpback Rock and the Humpback Rock Loop Trail.  It was a beautiful, sunny days with highs in the high 50s to low 60s up on the ridge.  The hike was beautiful and there were awesome views of the valleys.  There were a lot of people out hiking today, but it was not overly crowded.  We ended up hiking between 5 and 6 miles.

Outdoor Museum at Humpback Rock Visitor Center

Root Cellar

Barn and Storage

View from Humpback Rock

Humpback Rock

View of the valley as we drove from Shenendoah

 

After our hike, we drove down to the Afton Valley.  We were meeting Thom’s Uncle Ken and cousins; Kenny, Janice, and Patty (as well as Patty’s husband, Mike).  We had a late lunch or early dinner at the Blue Mountain Brewery in Afton.  It’s claim to fame is “Virginia’s First Rural Brewery.  It sits in the Afton Valley with a gorgeous view of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  It was warm enough to sit outside in their beautiful outdoor venue, with  perfect view of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  It is a blue sky, sunny day making the view even more beautiful.  Thom and I played corn hole until we Uncle Ken and Kenny arrived.  While it is warm enough to sit outside in this valley venue, we did decide that a sunny spot was best.  Thom orders a flight of 10 samples of their brews and we were all able to sample thei ones we wanted to.  They had a interesting blueberry beer, but I settled on the Kolsch-styled beer called Kolsch 151.  I did also liked the Dark Hollow, which is a Barrel Aged Imperial Stout.  The food choices were varied inclu niding thin crusted crunchy  pizza, burgers, salads and a really nice power bowl with kale, quinoa, dried fruit, walnuts, and grilled tofu (or other protein sou frces).  It also came with goat cheese, which I skipped.  Thom and I caught  up on their families (kids, grandkids) and themselves.  No one can remember for sure the last time they were all together.  We have seen Uncle Ken and Janice more recently at family events in Ohio.  Uncle Ken and Thom’s aunt have lived in Waynesboro, Virginia for as long as I remember and we haven’t spent as much time with Thom’s dad’s family as Thom’s mom’s family.

 

Outdoor venue at Blue Mountain Brewery

Eating area

Entrance to the brewery

We sat outside until the sun went behind the mountain peaks and then it quickly cooled down.  We went inside and sat by a fireplace in some comfy couches.  It was a wonderful afternoon and we enjoyed catching up.  At about 5:45 pm we left to head back to our apartment.  We knew that UVA was playing football at home and that the game was in the fourth quarter.  Our place is really close to the stadium.  We got back and there were roads block making it challenging to get to our place.  In fact, it took us about a half hour to figure out which roads were open, so that we could actually get there.  UVA won, but we smed to be in a quiet area and we didn’t hear any noisy parties.

 

Tomorrow, we leave to head to my nieces for Thanksgiving.  We had a nice stay in Charlotteville.