Natural Bridge - Day One

This past weekend we took our first family trip here in Virginia.  We planned our trip using this book:

The book has a section for each region of the state and it lists out all the fun family activites that you can do in each city/town.  We searched for a place to go that was not too far to drive and somewhere where there would be a lot to do.  We found the perfect place: Natural Bridge, Virginia.  We got there around 2:00pm  and checked into the Natural Bridge Hotel.  The Hotel is very nice and has an excellent breakfast.  They had a family weekend deal where you get a one night stay, breakfast and tickets for several attractions. All that for one great price. 

The first thing we did was hike to the Natural Bridge itself and then on through to an Indian Village.  Then at the very end we were rewarded with a view of Lace Falls.  It was over a 2 mile hike there and back but the boys did a great job.  The scenery was absolutely beautiful!

Here are my boys at the start of our hike.

The Natural Bridge.  Can you believe that Cars drive across that?! 

Me and my Boys.

Water under the bridge.  Up there on the ledge with the white box drawn on it, are several hand carved names of some famous people.  George Washington being one of them.

There are his initials.

View from the other side.

Dome house in the Monacan Indian Village.

We found a place where we could go down to the river and throw rocks.

We crossed this narrow bridge. Which....

crossed high over this part of the river.  To see...

this cool cave.  Which was nice and refreshing to stand in front of for awhile as the air coming out of it was indeed cool.

We took time to do lots of exploring. 

Simon rode on Troy's shoulders most of the time.

Here is the Lace Falls.  The end of our hike. 

On the way back, Josh noticed that the water made a "J", so we had to get a picture of him with his "J".

After a little snack, and a rest at the hotel, we drove to Hulls to see Despicable Me at Hulls Drive-In.  We got there over an hour before it started but some folks had been there longer than that.  They were packed!  The movie was really cute and all in all it was a good experience for all of us.  We would definitely do it again.  Supposedly there is a drive-in located in Christiansburg, which is our neighboring town. 

Eating our supper of PB&J and chips.  Waiting on the movie to start.

This is what it looked like before the movie started and none of the pics after turned out. 

But all the spaces there in front of us were full. 

The movie ended and we went to the hotel and crashed.  It was a great day and a great start to our Family Fun weekend.  I will post about the adventures we had on Saturday, sometime tomorrow. 

So stay tuned for part two.