Long post alert! Even though I already hit the highlights of the trip, I'm doing the special blog extended edition of our family trip to Virginia and Pennsylvania because I like keeping track of my memories. The 3 parts of this extended edition are:
- SVU and BV
- BV running
- Central PA and DC
This post will have a journal entry followed by pictures from that day, for each day we were in Virginia.
Wednesday, June 17, 2026
Travel day! Our family trip to Virginia and Pennsylvania has begun! We got up at 4:15am this morning in Sunnyside. As we were leaving the house at 4:55am, we noticed that last night's windstorm had blown some landscaping tarp and part of the drip line hose, so Jeff and I did a quick rearranging job... hopefully the drip line stays in place while we're gone! That windstorm also knocked out our power for over 2 hours.
Jeff's dad took us to the airport this morning. We flew from Pasco to LAX to Reagan in DC. LAX was a disaster of a tiny crowded terminal that wouldn't let us out to the rest of the airport. The food options were ridiculously expensive and not great. $100 airport lunch! Must be vacation! If only it was yummy, haha.
Our flight from LA to DC was 4 hours 40 minutes, and it felt very long. I fell asleep twice because I was so tired, so my neck is sore. But those little naps helped. All five of us were on one row in the 3x3 airplane. I read a whole book minus 4 minutes while traveling today. I'm going to finish that last chapter after I write in this journal.
We picked up our rental car, a surprisingly nice Kia Carnival minivan. We had fun pointing out the Washington monument and the Pentagon on our way out of DC. Amber asked "where on the map are we?" I told her Washington DC. "But what state are we in?" she asked. I explained to her how DC isn't a state, it's a district. It was a bit confusing for her tired travel brain to comprehend, cute girl. Jay piped up "that's why they say taxation with no representation!" Whereupon Jeff and Jay had a conversation about what kind of representation DC does have, haha. Just another White family car ride!
Boarding the plane in Pasco.
7am flight out of Pasco!
Jeff, crammed between other travelers at LAX. Ugh, that airport was a microcosm of Los Angeles the city: crowded, expensive, loud, and dirty.
Thursday, June 18, 2026
We're in Buena Vista, Virginia! We arrived at midnight local/eastern time last night, which felt like 9pm to our Pacific time zone-accustomed bodies. This morning Jeff and I let our kids sleep in while we went on a run together for 2 miles, then Jeff pulled ahead and we ran our own paces after that. I love running here in BV. Jay ran 20 minutes after he woke up around 9am, and when he got back we cracked up at the look on his face. He was so drenched in sweat it looked like he had jumped in a swimming pool. He said "that humidity is no joke!" It was Jay's first ever run in humidity. Welcome, son.
We went to SVU today as a family! We took an official campus tour. Jay, Rose, and Amber were very interested and loved it. Jeff and I felt like such old timers walking in the back of the group, whispering to each other about all the things that are different at SVU from when we were students there 19 years ago. It was fun showing our kids where we went to college! We even visited my old dorm room on the 3rd floor Main Hall and talked to the person whose office is in that room now.
We went to Walmart twice: water bottles and knee sleeves for Rose. Her knee is still sore from when she tweaked it last week. We visited VMI and W&L campuses this afternoon and walked around. We didn't have official guided tours for those visits. It was sunny and humid, and we got sweaty!
Our bedroom in the White Tree Guest House is small and smells weird. We are all crammed into one room with four beds: a set of bunk beds, a twin mattress on the floor, and a full size bed. The full size bed that Jeff and I are sharing is somehow both saggy and hard as well as unsupportive. The pillows look older than me. My hips and neck ached all night last night-- I only slept 4 interrupted hours. Not good! We took naps today, but the bed was still the same. But the price was right, the options were limited, and the hostess is so kind it makes up for the less than comfy bed. Ibuprofen at bedtime for the rest of the trip.
Giddy first run together at SVU in nearly 20 years!! In this picture we are running very close to the spot where we first held hands.
Family selfie with Main Hall after our tour of SVU!
In front of our first "apartment", the Resident Director's room in Robey Hall.
Our lodgings were snug.
Walking around W&L and reminiscing about competing in track and cross country meets on that beautiful campus.
The W&L track has been updated. We raced several 10k's on this oval.
The kids are on that bridge, looking down at the W&L tennis courts.
Wilson Field: the W&L track facility. SVU still doesn't have a track.
More W&L exploration. We liked these raised walkways through the trees.
Walking through W&L toward VMI.
We also walked around W&L's next door neighbor, VMI.
The training & drill field at VMI.
We drove to the Blue Ridge Parkway and admired the views.
I taught Jay how to take a good selfie. The secret is not to rely on the camera button on the phone screen. Instead, hold the phone and squeeze the volume button to take a selfie that's positioned farther away from your face and takes in more of the scenery.
We went to Salerno in Lexington, VA for dinner. It was a bit weird being able to actually go out to eat-- we didn't have time or money for restaurants when we were in college! We may have gone out to eat more during our one week trip than I did the entire 3.5 years I was at SVU!
A nice mural in downtown BV.
Friday, June 19, 2026
So tired, although I finally slept better last night. The two previous nights with barely 4 hours of sleep apiece are dragging me down. This morning Jeff and Jay ran the Elephant Mtn trail while I stayed on pavement for the sake of my ankle tendons. I ran down Catalpa Street and did the Long Hollow and Middle Road Loop. It ended up being 7.7 very hilly miles. My legs are so tired! It was fun to run that loop again. I gained more respect for my college self from running that hard loop!
After showering, we drove to Lexington to Waffle House for a late breakfast. The kids all loved it. Waffle House was fast. We were in and out of there in less than 45 minutes! We went back to our rental room after that for Jeff's daily nap. Rose and Jay also slept a bit, while Amber played games on a phone. I worked on some photo organization.
When Jeff finally woke up, we went to Panther Falls, a popular mountain stream swimming hangout that we remembered fondly from our college days. The drive there was a harrowing 3 miles down a very rocky bumpy rutted road, just like it was 20 years ago. Thankfully Jeff drove, but I still stressed the whole way. Panther Falls was busy with mostly college age kids. They had music playing over a loud speaker and it was obnoxious. I hate it when people go out into nature and turn on loud music. It invades my outside time! We did not jump into the Panther Falls swimming hole (too many college kids everywhere), but all of us except Jay did wade in the water lower downstream. Jeff and I went in up to the waist. Amber went in up to her shoulders. About 15 minutes after we arrived, a few people started smoking and vaping. The telltale smell of marijuana wafted over to us on the breeze, and we were done. We rushed to leave. Jeff quickly got upwind from the smokers so his allergic reaction was way smaller than usual: one Zyrtec and a 30 minute bed rest instead of Benadryl and 6 hours in bed.
While Jeff rested, I started a load of laundry at our lodgings, then drove to the Lexington Walmart to get Jeff and myself pillows (the ancient flat pillows have been hurting my neck and grossing me out). Hopefully a pair of $5 pillows will solve the problem! I also got Jay some blister care stuff and a razor for myself. On my way back to BV, I got Chick Fil-a for dinner for everyone.
We ate in the car and drove up to the Blue Ridge Parkway to see Indian Gap. It was barely a third of a mile long loop path in the woods... So we drove a bit farther down the Parkway to enjoy the views and then went back to our room. I have to say, this small shared room has been very uncomfortable for me. It's a mess of piled clothing and the beds are jammed in, with barely any floorspace. The full size bed Jeff and I are sharing is tilted, hard, shaky, and unsupportive. The window AC unit smells mildewy. We are definitely doing some close quarters family bonding in this little place. Two more nights in this awful bed and one more day in this beloved town!
I am slowly getting used to the fact that there's a YSA stake center on the SVU campus now.
Waffle House!
We sat in this corner of windows looking out on green green nature from all sides. It felt like eating breakfast in a treehouse!
Indian Gap "trail." It was as short as I remembered from college, haha.
Indian Gap rocks.
Saturday, June 20, 2026
I woke up frequently last night, but I still managed to get pretty good sleep: over 8 hours, so I felt more energetic this morning. Jeff and I left our sleeping kids and ran on the Chessie Trail at 8am this morning. It was beautiful, and felt amazing to run on such a flat trail after the hilly hill loop I ran yesterday. My weekly mileage total is 33.4. that's my second consecutive week over 30 miles! I don't even aspire to running more than that each week. My legs are quite tired from all of the long hilly runs I did here in Buena Vista, VA. I ran 7 miles this morning!
A little before noon today, we packed up some lunch items (tuna packets & triscuits) and went to one of our favorite trails, Devil's Marbleyard. We have wanted to take our kids there for years! It was so fun to share one of our favorite hikes with them. Amber especially loved it. She was a little mountain goat just like her father, and had no trouble scampering up the rocks ahead of Rose and me. Jay followed close behind. I stayed back with Rose on the way up. Her swollen knee was feeling better enough for the hike today, but it was still a bit tender so she wore her compression sleeve and went a little slower. We ate lunch at the top of the boulder field, and then hiked down the steep side trail back to the car. We got ice cream at The Beeve a block away from our lodgings afterwards. They had fresh handmade waffle cones. A scoop of butter pecan and a scoop of blackberry ice cream in mine: YUM.
There's a fiddler's convention going on at Glen Maury Park here in BV this weekend, and a fiddler is staying in our same boarding house. She was sitting on the front porch fiddling away beautifully this morning when Rose and I left to get our lunch groceries. I was impressed with her tone-- usually fiddlers are more squeaky and whiny than traditional violinists, but she had a rich tone to her fiddling. I loved it!
After my second shower of the day, I sat outside on a shaded bench next to our lodging house in the breeze while our laundry washed. After I switched the laundry over, we walked around the corner to Original Italian Restaurant for dinner. It was about as good as I expected it to be in this little town. The spaghetti sauce tasted like mediocre bottled cafeteria sauce, haha. But spaghetti was the only dairy free pasta option on the menu, so oh well! Jeff, Jay, and Rose got fettuccine Alfredo and liked it a lot. Amber got a hamburger.
My feet are throbbing. They don't exactly hurt, but they are pulsing inside my compression socks. Time to bum a massage off of my husband!
Chessie Trail joy!
Crossing the bridge to Devil's Marbleyard.
So pretty!
The boulder field.
Rose
Is it crazy that I recognized this square rock? I have a picture of Jeff and me climbing it back when we were engaged. I'll try to find it...
At the top of the boulder field!
Trying to get the boulders and the mountains in one selfie wasn't happening, so we took one of each.
Lunch.
I hiked down with Amber. She told me all about a story she's writing and we brainstormed character names the whole way down.
Ice cream!
This little bench was a refuge in the breezy shade on the side of our boarding house.
Sunday, June 21, 2026
This morning on our way to church, we stopped at SVU's Main Hall for a family picture. It was pretty hard balancing my phone on a tree branch to take the picture, and later we realized we were standing in a dark shadow, but oh well! We got our picture! We also took Jeff's traditional Father's Day picture of him lifting all three kids and holding them above the ground for a few seconds. It was a bit stressful but also impressive and funny to watch. Jeff said "Only one more year lifting all 3 kids!" That reality made me ache a little.
At church in BV, we saw two old friends: Chelsea Lund Whetstone and Dr. Jan-Erik Jones and his wife Kristin. When Chelsea walked into the chapel and saw us, she did a double take, grinned a big smile, and hugged me. When Dr. Jones walked in (during the ward announcements) and saw Jeff, he did a comical exaggerated double take and then walked down our row to give Jeff a big hug. He said "welcome home!" It was a happy reunion, but they couldn't talk during sacrament meeting, so they waited to say more till afterwards. It was fun chatting with old friends who we haven't seen in nearly 20 years! I loved my time at SVU and the people I got to know there.
Happy Father's Day to our favorite!
Chelsea! Meeting an old friend at church is so happy.
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