Celebration in Lights is a two mile drive through holiday light displays in Newport News Park, featuring some creative and well done lights arrangements. Celebration in Lights, Virginia’s first drive-through holiday light event, opens for its 26th season. Newport News Park is transformed by over a million individual lights, creating animated holiday and fanciful scenes. […]
Virginia
12 Days of Daytrips for Winter Break
The kids are home for winter break and are starting to get bored! What do you do? Here are some fun, inexpensive ideas for great memory-making daytrip destinations in the mid-Atlantic region. Inspire your kids over the winter break! Have you ever wondered how the food you eat — a potato chip, for example — goes […]
Meadowlark’s Winter Walk of Lights
During the day, at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens, in Vienna, VA, you can explore 95 acres of ornamental display gardens and unique native plant collections. As you meander along the walking trails, you can discover local flora and fauna among lakes, meadows, and forests. Take in majestic views of the Piedmont hills, explore the Korean Bell Garden […]
Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Shop
It’s not every day you can go into an old-time apothecary shop and see it, exactly as a customer in the early 1900s would have experienced it. But you can do just that, at the Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Shop Museum in Alexandria, VA’s historic district. This historic apothecary shop has been preserved as a museum. During […]
10 Great October Daytrip Destinations in the MidAtlantic
With summer 2018 firmly behind us, our thoughts start turning to autumn’s glorious colors, scenic drives, the harvest bounty, and spooky destinations. Read on for a little of each, selected from MidAtlanticDayTrips’ jaunts throughout Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia! Start planning now! October is a great time to enjoy the changing foliage and check out […]
10 Fun Things to Do in September!
September is summer’s last gasp, and is a favorite time of year. The weather cools, and toward the end of the month, autumn leaves start showing their colors. The mid-Atlantic region offers a wide variety of great things to do and see! There’s nothing quite like a Renaissance festival, whether it’s in Maryland or Virginia […]
VA Air & Space Museum Brings Us to Space, and Beyond!
A number of children’s drawings and paintings are hung in the museum. The artist of this wonderful painting is a second grader from Argyle, TX. (The artist’s name is withheld to protect the child’s privacy.) Hampton, VA and the NASA Langley Research Center is the birthplace of America’s space program. It was here that the […]
Fort Wool
Located at the entrance to the Hampton Roads Harbor, Fort Wool, originally named Fort Calhoun, was built to maintain a crossfire with Fort Monroe, located directly across the channel, thereby protecting the entrance to the harbor. Along with Fort Monroe, Fort Wool was constructed following the War of 1812 to protect Hampton Roads from the […]
Fort Monroe’s Casemate Museum
Fort Monroe, the largest stone fort in America, is a decommissioned military installation in Hampton, VA on Old Point Comfort, the southern tip of the Virginia Peninsula. For at least 400 years, the point of land that now includes Fort Monroe has served as the key defensive site at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. […]
Swimming in History on the Miss Hampton II Harbor Tour
A great way to introduce yourself to the Hampton Roads area is to take a harbor tour out of historic downtown Hampton, VA, on the Miss Hampton II. Hampton is swimming in history, which the harbor tour brings to life. Four hundred years of European settlement is highlighted, from the earliest arrival of European ships […]
A Month of Summer Daytrips for Kids
It’s that time again — when school ends for the year and kids cheer and parents groan (just a little, because, you know, we really love our kids). If you’re looking for some great ideas for day trips with your little cherubs — the kind of daytrips that will keep their imaginations active and expand […]
Soaring at Eagle Rock
The Appalachian Trail, and offshoots from it, offer many opportunities for incredible views. Many of the shorter trails make great, there-and-back day hikes, such as the hike to Eagle Rock, in Frederick County, near Winchester, VA. Eagle Rock has some of the best vistas in the Great North Mountain range, and can be accessed via […]
Truth in History at Belle Grove Plantation
Belle Grove Plantation, in King George, VA, is a gorgeous place, high up on a bluff on the eastern shore of the Rappahanock River. James Madison, the fourth President of the United States, was born there on March 16, 1751, although the house, which was the childhood home of his mother, Eleanor Rose Conway, where […]
It Is an Excellent Good Pudding
If you really want to understand a time period that isn’t our own, then live it, even if only for a few hours. That was the thought as my sister and I signed up for a second open hearth cooking seminar at Gunston Hall. If ever you think preparing a full Thanksgiving meal, replete with […]
Potomac River Paddling Adventure in Dyke Marsh
Dyke Marsh Preserve, one of the few remaining freshwater tidal wetlands on the Potomac is best explored by kayak or canoe. Located on the west bank of the Potomac River south of Alexandria, Virginia between Old Town Alexandria and Mount Vernon. Dyke Marsh consists of about 380 acres of tidal marsh, floodplain, and swamp forest. […]