Archives for category: Day trips from Virginia

Early June at Massanutten

July 4, 2026 //
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I have a couple of good friends here in Arlington who have a timeshare out at Massanutten Resort. They’re great – but not because they have a timeshare at Massanutten. I met them about a decade ago through my friend Joe because Joe met them once every week or two for a game night. I learned about his game nights at one point and said, “You should invite me.” After some hemming and hawing, eventually I became an invitee – and a regular. So, to this day I play games with Pat and Jim.

Carcassonne is probably our most frequently played game because it only takes about 40 minutes and it doesn’t require an even number of players and we often play it adjacent to a longer game. But anyway. This isn’t about games. This is about Massanutten, and visiting the Shenandoah Valley.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned but will do so frequently now – I am a hiker. I am a hiker because I enjoy being outdoors. I grew up on a farm so it is merely natural. Whenever I can I escape the city to head west to the mountains to hike. There are other outdoor activities I don’t care much about, like hunting (I am not a hunter), fishing (I don’t have the patience to deal with fishing lines and fish hooks or cleaning fish), four wheeling and motor sports. I’m okay at camping, preferably not with a backpack, but I enjoy a walk in the woods.

So I go hiking.

I live in Arlington, Virginia, half a dozen miles from the U.S. Capitol. End result, it is not good for hiking here. For what it’s worth, I do know people who dispute this. “You can hike on the Potomac Heritage Trail” or “I like to hike in Rock Creek Park” is what I hear. To me, no, even if you find the rugged spots if you’re hiking virtually in someone’s back yard hearing the hum of the freeway and hearing planes landing at National Airport you are not hiking.

Sometimes I cheat and head to Lake Acotink Park. Okay, that’s almost-hiking. Huntley Meadows Park? Too flat and level. Not hiking, even if there are a ton of bird watchers.

A proper hike requires you to bring water and snacks and climb a mountain or head down into a valley to chase waterfalls.

Anyway, one of the reasons, other than friendship, I head to Massanutten when my friends are there is to go hiking.

But this post is not about hiking. I didn’t go hiking when I visited Pat and Jim this time around.

This time I headed out from work the day after I returned from Baltimore and stopped at the local Walmart. Let’s just say that my tech-oriented mind had not slowed down yet and the locals in Luray, Virginia, kept bumping into me with their shopping carts.

I did eventually slow down when I arrived at this cluster of timeshare duplexes. My friends always play a game when they arrive. There is a trick to getting the best spot. You always want views of the mountains, but usually you have a choice between sunset and sunrise. This time they lucked out. They were able to get both.

When they visit Massanutten usually they stay for two or three weeks. They don’t go in the middle of summer as it’s too hot and they go there to be outside. They never go in the middle of winter either for the same reason. Their goal is to go when they can golf and go see live music, and it seems as if every other winery and brewery in that part of the Shenandoah Valley has live music.

Elkton Brewing Co. is probably my favorite place to go for beer out there. It’s really low key and laid back – very small town – unlike a lot of places where they built to handle 200 or 300 or 400 people. When weather is nice they set up a band on the porch; when weather is not nice they set up a band inside. And Woodfiredco has a pizza truck in their lot for Friday nights like this.

The thing about Elkton is there’s a busy freight rail line running through town so about every sixth song has a CSX locomotive running through it. This particular Friday night was no exception.

Nonetheless the band soldiered on, acoustic guitar with tenor singer playing along in a style I like to call “winery music.” They did a stunning rendition of Amy Winehouse’s “Valerie.”

And then an hour later we were at Base Camp, a thousand feet higher and a thousand feet cooler listening to a band called Gypsy Town playing a much better rendition of Valerie. You can find both on my instagram – robnorwood is my handle there.

I actually enjoy the vibe better at Elkton Brewery, even with the trains going past. The beer is better too. Base Camp has a much more extensive menu (Elkton Brewery only has the pizza truck) but the funny thing is you can never find something you like at Base Camp and when it’s busy the service is excruciatingly painful.

But there are always deer in the evening. And sometimes raccoons.

So, the thing about heading out to Massanutten for the weekend is my friends keep a pretty serious schedule when they are out of town. I try to not exhaust myself on the weekend; if I go for a morning hike or a run or something, then an afternoon at a winery or two for live music followed by an evening at Elkton or Cave Creek, it gets to be a bit much. And this time I had been out of town for a few days before so I paced myself. Saturday morning I went for a walk and then we had a leisurely breakfast playing games before heading to Lavender Farm.

I know Lavender Farm has an official name but this is how we know it. They have llamas, or alpacas I cannot tell, and a small petting zoo, and they also grow a lot of lavender. Some of it they put in wine.

One time I had a wine tasting here, but never again. They have a handful of good white wines (in Virginia you can never go wrong with Viognier) and one good red wine (Cabernet Franc I think, same rule applies). And they have some decent beer.

But we came here to see Shane Click.

This isn’t Shane. This is me. Shane gives out these sexy glasses at his gig and encourages people to wear them. When you tip him he pauses in his singing to say, “Thanks you sexy beast!”

Shane knows what songs to play regardless of whether you request something but it’s more fun if you make a request. For me he played, “God is Great, Beer is Good, Rob is Crazy.”

Eventually the show ended and as I had been away for parts of five days at that point I drove the two hours home to Arlington for the night.

Another successful visit to the Shenandoah Valley.

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Categories Day trips from Virginia, Hiking, Uncategorized

Things I have done in Baltimore

July 4, 2026 //
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On returning from vacation I worked, and rested, for a few days and then I scurried off to Baltimore. It seems I go yearly now for a conference. Sometimes the conference is in May, sometimes it is in June, this year it was June 2 through 4.

So what can I say. When I first moved to Virginia, 30 years ago this week, Baltimore was for me a day trip destination. I traveled up there several times with friends to go to concerts, explore the Inner Harbor, see the Fourth of July fireworks, or to, well, visit friends. And I saw several baseball games there before baseball returned to Washington the year of my 33rd birthday. Eventually it waned in importance until for two years I dated a native Baltimorean during what we will call my “early divorcee” period. To a large degree I know Baltimore. And the Inner Harbor isn’t it.

Baltimore has its own hometown brands such as Under Armour, seen above from Fells Point along the water on an early morning run. There’s also a big Domino’s Sugar warehouse with a big light up sign. For years it was a finance capital as well.

All these tall buildings in the center are what was the financial center of Baltimore.

But now this is it – over there across the water.

When I’m in Baltimore I still try to get out a bit. Sometimes in the company of others –

This example, to The Choptank in the historic Broadway Market building in Fells Point.

But sometimes alone, as was the case last year when I escaped for dinner at a rooftop bar by myself. I didn’t find photo evidence of that this time though.

This year the first night I had dinner at Be More Thai the first night with my boss. I thought he wanted to talk about work and long range planning, or perhaps what happens when he decides to go and become a farmer. Instead, he just wanted a quiet meal. As you can see I had the very large rockfish. He had vegetarian fried rice. Now a month later he’s the one who has had a heart attack and not me of course. He’s fine now, don’t worry, none of us thought he was the type that would scare us this way!

My second day in Baltimore this year was LONG. But first, Coffee.

I visited Ceremony Coffee in the historic Cross Street Market. I knew they roasted good beans; they were the coffee served at my coffee shop of choice in my previous job, before Covid and before I became disillusioned and left. After coffee I took a 45 minute stroll along the water front. And then spent 7 hours on the convention floor. And then a series of happy hours.

Our first was at Blackwell & Hitch sponsored by one of our business partners.

This was followed by casino night and old fashioneds. Then when casino night ended, we decided to storm the pirate ship, as I put it. My former company was sponsoring an event on a tall ship. I believe it was the Pride of Baltimore (II, if you’re keeping track), but to be honest I really wasn’t paying attention.

Coincidentally the same ship sailed to New York to take part in today’s Tall Ship Parade for the 250th Anniversary of Independence. Anyway, our group had a good time on the ship. I actually saw my old boss and had a pretty detailed conversation on the benefits of graduate education in business.

Anyway, eventually they kicked us off the ship (threw us into the harbor so to speak), so we left for a pub (if you’re keeping track, we left the conference at 4pm and it was now 10pm). I have photos from the pub but I’m not sharing.

My Oura ring tells me I walked back to the hotel after midnight.

June 4 (Day 3 if you’re keeping track) started bright and early. And I found another coffee shop.

This was cool because it was a barber shop in a cafe.

See the barber pole? Anyway, I won a 10% discount off my next drink there by choosing the correct color.

That was Baltimore for this time around. Again, I’ve spent a fair amount of time there. I’ve run 5k races, 10k races, and I ran from Towson straight down the spine of Charles Street in the Charles Street 12 mile race. I’ve been in a mosh pit in the football stadium as The Offspring were on stage. I’ve been to art museums; I’ve cheered as the Orioles won. And, most importantly, I’ve had someone call me “Hon.”

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Categories Day trips from Virginia, travel, Work Travel

Mason Neck State Park

April 19, 2026 //
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One of the great things about the area where we live is the proximity to the Potomac River and everything it brings. The Potomac of course is split here – the lower tidal Potomac begins at Little Falls situated between north Arlington and the Palisades neighborhood above Georgetown in DC whereas piedmont Potomac ends there, heading towards the sea. Mason Neck State Park along with associated national wildlife refuge and other protected areas is a great way to explore tidal Potomac. It’s also less than an hour (could be 30 minutes, could be 55 minutes) from my house.

I’ve been here several times over the course of the past two or three decades. There’s one spot that’s great for “beach walking,” although the beach runs out after a few minutes fairly quickly. This stretch actually faces the bay towards Occoquan; one assumes one is facing Maryland but one is actually facing back towards Virginia!

In a few spots there are duck blinds on the bay. I’m not certain if they allow hunting here – presumably yes, but likely more on the other side in the wildlife refuge. The above photo is about half a dozen years old.

When tide comes in it can be a bit tricky.

Also from years past. Towards the end of Mason Neck there is a large amount of wetland. Closer in it is more wooded. In the past when I have been here there have been osprey along the water in the more wooded space. This time, out towards the wetlands.

In the past I had many photos of osprey and bald eagles in the distance. This time, thanks to the wonders of Apple’s latest technology, they were closer up.

Anyway, Mason Neck is situated such that there are a handful of relatively lengthy trails – a mile out, and a mile back – towards the end of the peninsula complimented by a border set of lengthy or lengthier trails that go into the woodlands towards the more inland bay. Usually when I head to Mason Neck I spend maybe an hour or two wandering towards the end of the peninsula along the wetlands and then I head for more mileage inland. There are enough trails to cover and not get bored for 3 or 4 hours of wandering at a decent pace if you cover every single one and I think alone I have done this and covered six or eight miles. This time I was there and stayed out along the end of the peninsula – further from the highway from the main park – and covered eight miles without heading towards the more inland woods. And I was at the park from about 11am to 3:30pm, including an hour sitting and snacking on cheese, French bread, and charcuterie.

I saw a ton of turtles of various sizes including these as well as smaller examples down to about an inch or two in length.

Off in the distance there was a rather large Great Blue Heron.

I wandered out into an open meadow area from one of the observation blinds. As the wildlife refuge has accumulated land some of the farmland is being allowed to slowly fall back into a wetland state. This more open property has a greater variety of wildlife than the state park itself.

Including this black snake. I took a photo of another that was perhaps six feet long. This one was about four feet.

This massive wasp nest was hanging in a tree off across the field.

Oh, large snails.

Past photo of one of these from long ago.

This photo is also from long ago. Here is a stretch near the visitor center where there are platforms for osprey to rest such as the post in the water on the left here. The platform was still there but there were not as many osprey around – they were further behind me, perhaps fifteen or twenty minutes walk. Through the woods on the right there are trails that lead to the end of the bay here that take about thirty minutes out and thirty minutes back and this is where in the past I have seen bald eagles nesting.

This time I came down to this point late in my stay and eventually needed to go home, so instead I walked straight into the woods a hundred yards to a viewing platform where I met a couple who were sitting on a bench having a picnic. The man asked me if I saw what looked like a school of fish in the distance, maybe 1,000 feet or further out.

I haven’t managed to upload a video of what I saw, but here is a screen capture.

Taken at near-full zoom on my iPhone. It was a flock of cormorants!

I stayed to chat with the couple a bit. They were enjoying smoked salmon from Wegmans with dill on brown bread and offered me some. They do say don’t take food from people you’ve just met, but it was good and I survived.

A great way to get a lot of steps in on a Saturday.

Next time, ask me about my picnic packing trips for hiking.

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Categories Day trips, Day trips from Virginia, Hiking

Harper’s Ferry early season hiking

March 9, 2026 //
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On the first weekend of March I officially kicked off my spring hiking season. It was exceptionally warm, and whereas I spent February acting as a hermit, as I normally do in January, I felt it was time to start getting outdoors again and leave the city. The problem is everybody else thought it was a great day to get out as well and Harper’s Ferry is one of the closest “outdoor places” to the DC Metro area.

Usually when I head out of town for a day to go hiking I start thinking about it on Tuesday and Wednesday. I try and figure out how much energy I will have on the weekend and how early I want to get up. Saturday is a better day to rise early and head out of town than Sunday not because the morning is easier (it’s actually easier on Sunday), but more because the return drive is easier. And that was the case.

I chose Harper’s Ferry because I did not want to make a full, long day of it. And because there are a handful of hiking opportunities where I do not have to plan ahead. The most popular hike from Harper’s Ferry is Maryland Heights – a hike I have never done as it’s steep and crowded but not long so it doesn’t seem as if it would be satisfying other than the view.

Amother popular hike is to walk across the trestle, shown above, as if you’re going to climb up the rocks to Maryland Heights and instead walk a mile or two down the C&O trail to the southeast and follow the Appalachian trail up a mountain to a similar viewpoint.

A third option is to walk up the mountain on the right – either walk straight out the Appalachian Trail to the south as far as your heart desires and then turn around and return, or to try and find Loudoun Heights and the overlook on the forested bluff on the right.

I tried to do this a few years back and failed. The map and phone show the trail to the overlook to be a mile up the mountain and then it shows a loop trail. As I was trying it before on a day where I was time-constrained (I think I had three hours to walk), I gave up before I reached a view, and as the trail kept heading downhill into dense trees I gave up.

So, for this particular adventure I did not rise early Saturday. I woke up at a reasonable hour, had a reasonable breakfast, did some reading and caught up on life a bit, and then sat down with the map to figure out where to hike. One thing I have now that I didn’t have the last time I was out there was the Avenza Maps app. It permits you to download topographical maps which then work offline making navigation easier even without the aid of a large printed map. Perusing the map I noticed a similar loop trail. So, while sitting at home drinking coffee around 11am I decided, hey, I’d better get going so I could have five hours to walk in daylight rather than three.

A little before 1pm I was parked in Harpers Ferry in the upper town walking down to the lower town. Lower town was a zoo; every suburbanite in the world came out here. Normally when i come down here I walk out over the trestle and back before continuing other adventures but this time I simply walked to the base of the bridge, stopped to watch a freight train go past, and then followed the AT up the ridge past a historic church and behind the Storer College campus. That in itself is a nice walk – rising several hundred feet from the valley floor and clinging to the side of a ridge overlooking the valley where the Shenandoah River cuts south isolating Harper’s Ferry from the wooded valley where the AT climbs the Loudoun Heights ridge.

If you ever walk this hike, from town it is perhaps a mile following the white blazes over the U.S. 340 bridge. Then as you leave the bridge there are steps down to pass under the bridge and then start switchbacking up the side of the Blue Ridge. More than a mile up the mountain you encounter one side of the former loop trail to the overlooks.

My first time past this sign I did not elect to go out the Loudoun Heights Trail. I kept going up the mountain to see if I could find the other side of the loop, following the park service’s map. Spoiler alert – it shows to be half a mile, measured and labeled, on the map, but I walked a mile and did not find it. I was acttually following behind someone else who appeared to do the same. He actually sought out the topmost point of the ridge by the looks of it and looked around and turned around to go back. I eventually turned back as well and followed the trail to Split Rock.

At the end I was nicely rewarded, nearly a mile and half down the mountain. The view shows Maryland Heights on the right and Harper’s Ferry at the end of the railroad trestle in the center. The Potomac goes off to the right forming the border between West Virginia and Maryland; the Shenandoah goes to the left headed southwest through the West Virginia panhandle to return to Virginia maybe 30 miles upstream.

At this point I had walked seven miles. Directly from the car it would have been about three miles.

The view of town from here is phenomenal. My car is parked beyond that bald spot on the top of the mountain.

This is the view from the other side at the top of the ridge in town. It was beautiful as the light was going down. Golden Hour had arrived and I caught some decent shots of the white birches in the valley contrasted with the gray on the hillsides.

Cutting back through town I walked across the former Storer College campus.

Storer was for many years an early HBCU but for the past several decades has been a training campus for the National Park Service instead.

So with life getting in the way I’ll miss some prime hiking opportunities but hopefully I can get some in this coming weekend – probably not anything significant though. Now I’m off enjoying the glamorous world of business travel.

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Categories Day trips, Day trips from Virginia, Hiking