William's Days in Luray Virginia

Our grandson William visited us in Luray, Virginia over Memorial Day weekend and for a couple of days afterward.  His parents and GuGu Katie also visited on Saturday and Sunday, and Katie continued on into Monday.  The weather wasn't very copacetic until Monday, and by then the holiday was ending.  So it was the job of William and us to make up for the rainy weekend.

Monday, May 31, 2021, we set out with William after breakfast to explore the Hawksbill Greenway Trail, which we had walked with our friend Ginny the prior week.  However, as every former 9-year-old knows, a trail looks much different to a young person than it does to a bunch of old fogies.

Right off the bat, we discovered a painted boulder hailing bees and butterflies!

William conquered the trail without any effort:

It wasn't long after we started hiking that we spotted this Great Blue Heron flying down Hawksbill Creek:

Kathy also spotted some honeysuckle and showed William how to pull the pistil out of the flower and suck a drop of "honey":

William took every opportunity to clamber out onto the rocks in the stream:

Near a bridge passing over the trail, we encountered these two very poisonous looking snakes sunning themselves on a rock.  We decided not to take them home as pets.

After hiking most of the 4-mile trail, we stopped at the train museum in downtown Luray, and then walked out back to inspect a slave auction block:

This native sandstone bluck, which stood in downtown Luray, was used as a perch for slaves as they were sold at auction.  The stone is said to be one of a few still in existence.  A plaque next to the stone pointed out that the stone is an historic symbol of a dark past of peoples' inhumanity toward fellow people, and opined that the stone is also a symbol of how far we have come in learning to respect slavery's victims and in resolving to go foreward into the future with mutual respect and understanding.  We didn't mention our thoughts to William, but we wonder if recent events in our country since 2016 undercut that confident statement.

We concluded our outing with a tasty lunch in downtown Luray, and then headed back to our campground for a long swim in a cool pool to beat the heat of the afternoon.  After the swim, William helped Kathy shuck some corn for a campfire dinner of hamburgers and corn-on-the-cob:

Tuesday, William had a full day of school, which ended at 2:00 pm.  As soon as classes were done, we drove over to the famous Luray Caverns to give William a tour of the underground world of stalactites and stalagmites:

One notable feature of the Caverns is a "stalacpipe organ" which can play music by striking individual stalactities to get pitch-perfect notes.  The music was ethereal and very calming.

William probably enjoyed most the "wishing well" pond toward the end of our tour, where lots of tourists had thrown coins into the clear water.  The pool looks blue because so many copper pennies surrendered their blue color to the waters of the pool:

We took advantage of two other attractions at Luray Caverns, as well.  One was a ropes course where, strapped safely into overhead rails, we walked across ropes and other challenged about two stories above the ground below.  William admitted that this was not one of his most favorite adventures, but he was very proud that he completed the course.

He had enormous fun, however, in the Garden Maze at Luray Caverns, as did we.  It is the most sophisticated, genuine hedge maze we have ever seen, and we had fun trying to run it and discover the path to the exit.  It made us think of Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory attempting to reach the Goblet of Fire.  Luckily, no one in our party suffered any negative consequences in this maze:

William was our pathfinder, and the signs along the way attested to his navigating abilities:

It appeared that Kathy was going to suffer the same fate as Fleur Delacore:

However, our hero and heroine made it to the end and enjoyed the fruit of their labors by relaxing next to a Renaissance fountain at the center of the maze:

On Tuesday and Wednesday, William had classes virtually, online, and worked hard to fulfill his scholarly responsibilities.  Luckily, the internet bandwidth in our campground was strong enough to support his Zoom classroom meetings.

We had lots of activities after classes, including one afternoon where Kathy taught William how to shoot marbles:

Our adventures with William lasted over two series of remote class weeks.  On the second week, we found nearby Arrowhead Lake where we took William to paddle kayaks and swim.  He also found an opportunity to work with other kids to trap some little fingerling fish in a Nalgene water bottle.  He was very proud to have helped catch five little fish!

Our days at Luray passed to quickly.  Now, we are camped at Bull Run, closer to Washington, D.C., and William is working hard to complete his last two weeks of classes.  We're hoping to spend another couple days with him before he heads off to various summer camps and we head north for adventures with family and friends in Pennsylvania and Connecticut.  We plan to pick William up in July and August to have more adventures in Maine and New York!  Stay tuned for all that.