Architecture, Shakespeare, Orchestra & even Spiderman!

Staunton – an architectural gem in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley – Stunning! Population 26,000 with more than 80 churches!

Blackfriars Playhouse – the world’s only re-creation of Shakespeare’s original indoor theatre. Only got to peek inside since it was a ‘dark week’ (nothing scheduled) the week we were there 😕 If we would have arrived 4 days earlier we could have seen ‘Much Ado About Nothing’.

However, we did happen upon a FREE noon Violin and String Orchestra event at the Trinity Episcopal while doing an architecture walkabout tour through the town. Wow what an eye-opener, spectacle that was!  We really don’t even know if what we saw is common? It was comprised of 3 different ‘sets?’ again correct terminology? … 🤷🏻‍♀️ … anyways in the 2^nd set the lady there in the blue pants was  … well Lynn said she was either a genius or a lunatic! HAHA 😂 She was both mesmerizing and captivating to hear and watch 🎻 At one point all the music stopped abruptly, then she like yelled out a sound that sounded almost exactly like the sound she was making on the violin! and along with lot of frantic odd head movements, swaying etc … Out on the street afterwards, lots of people were lingering around commenting on her ‘performance’ 🙃

Leaving Staunton, Virginia behind we’re back on the move towards Gettysburg … but not for long … we just can’t seem to resist caves so pulled in to check out this place. We’ve been through a lot of different caves over the years – wet caves, dry caves, took a boat through another, and one a few years ago that required a wet suit to swim through, and now this one called Luray Caverns … it was like an underground city it was so huge!  There was a room at the very bottom that had an electric organ that activated ‘plungers’ (I think is what they said) making different notes and tones depending on the different cave formations the sounds bounced off. Not sure if I explained this quite right but whatever, it was VERY cool and kind of eerie sounding!

Still on route to Gettysburg, we stayed one night at a Harvest Host in this cute, very artsy-looking, little town called Front Royal that reminded me of the tv series called ‘Heart of Dixie’