One word to describe our experience at Luray Caverns: sublime. My favorite part was standing inside The Cathedral Room, featuring the Great Stalacpipe Organ that "uses stalactites to produce musical notes." This was a highlight of our mini road trip, a scenic and winding two-hour drive from downtown Richmond, Virginia.
My partner surprised me with a private Founders Tour with King Family Vineyards cofounder, Ellen King, in Crozet, Virginia. Together we learned about the vineyard's varietals, their ideal growing conditions (and how the crew mitigates not-so-ideal weather), how the bushels are handpicked, sorted, de-stemmed, and crushed using modern machinery, how the grapes are transported into steel drums for fermentation and coloring, and how the juice is aged in wooden barrels from various regions. Photo and video of the machinery were taken by my partner.
The windmill you see in the last photo was a birthday gift Ellen bought for her husband years ago, which still stands tall on the land. She and her family are keeping her husband's legacy alive through their hard work and dedication to the vineyards, which started as a polo field and continues to host matches throughout the year.
All of the wines we tasted were, of course, delicious—from the Crosé (a play on the name of the city, Crozet) to the vineyard's flagship meritage red blend. What a memorable experience. Thank you to Ellen for sharing her professional and personal legacy with us during this special weekend trip. We wish Ellen and her family many more years of fruitful harvests together.
What you see here are the Maymont estate's Japanese and Italian Gardens, with photos of grazing bison taken by my partner. The historic mansion was, unfortunately, closed due to renovations.
Roaming the historic botanical gardens on a hot Virginia afternoon. The butterfly photo was taken by my partner, who is skilled at finding and capturing hard-to-see subjects.
