Every vacation is special because I get to spend the time with my mom and dad both without that nasty W-O-R-K stuff getting in the way. But, some vacations are more special than others and this one was definitely on the extra special side.
Mom, dad and I went to Shenandoah River State Park in Furrginia. It is between Front Royal and Luray and, as you might guess on the Shenandoah River. Mom says it is on the South Fork of the Shenandoah River. Since she works for state parks I will have to take her word for that. I did not see any forks while I was there except the ones mom and dad ate with.
This is the park road. It is winding to copy
the way the river winds around lots of bends.
Here is the river winding
We went to the same park last September and it was great then too but this year the weather was better and the air clear so the mountains and the sky were extra beautiful as opposed to hazy. It got really cold a few nights and I had to get under the covers to help keep mom and dad warm.
Shenandoah River has some beautiful new cabins and a new campground that opened in July but we stayed in this old, rustic cabin called the Brown Cabin. The Brown Cabin is not fit for public consumption so park staff can rent it. It got its name because it's brown. I think that makes lots of sense. The Brown Cabin features a porch with windows that open up and look out at the river.
Great views in the new cabin area
Great views in the new campground
This is the Brown Cabin with the windows of the porch
that look out over the river
This is me looking out the window as mom was taking the pictures
This is the river we see from the cabin. Dad took the chair out
there so he could sit and watch the river.
Do you see the giant stick in the water?
I couldn't budge it.
While we were on vacation, mom read seven books. I am going to do a review of two of the books that I read with her in my next post. Dad read a book, played his guitar, and played some of his Playstation games and we all listened to lots of music. There is no TV at the Brown Cabin (or actually in any of the state park cabins except Chippokes Plantation). There is no cell service or internet. The park gets some cell service but not out at the Brown Cabin. This was not good for keeping up with my pals on Facebook and Twitter but it was real good for my mom who works too hard. The best part of the trip for me was all the swimming and stick chasing I got to do in the river.
These three are my favorite swimming pictures!
Looking for pee-mail
To get to the cabin you have to either come by the low river bridge and go through a locked gate and then drive a mile. Or, you take an "authorized personnel only" gravel road from the main park side and drive a mile and a half. We don't see tons of people near the cabin but there were more people hiking, biking and horseback riding this year than last. The only vehicles that go by are park staff doing security checks. I bark at all of them.
This is dad opening the gate so we can drive through
This is a picture down river when you are on the low
water bridge. The low water bridge is just a very narrow
bridge not much above the water. You don't want
to be on that bridge if there is a flood.
This is a picture up river from the low water bridge
This is a picture of the park when you are driving to the
Brown Cabin. You can barely glimpse the river past the trees.
Since I don't like riding in the car much, if mom and dad have to go somewhere, they leave me at the Brown Cabin. This year they weren't gone much. Mom tells me the town of Front Royal is really nice. They have an old fashioned town square.
The Front Royal Town Square
The Brown Cabin has a tiny kitchen and mom and dad did some cooking there and there is also a charcoal grill and two fire rings - one right by the river. The last night we were there we had a really big fire in the fire ring. It was kind of scary because it was really windy but mom and day watched the fire real good. We also roasted marshmallows.
Can you see the marshmallows cooking on the stick?
The day we came home was cloudy and it rained a little. Since we had nine days of beautiful, sunny weather that was okay by us. It was also okay because the rain washed away all the dirt on the car from driving down the gravel and dirt road to the cabin.
Next year we may go to a different park in September, but I will always remember the special times we had here.
