Highland County

I was going to title this post "Sugar Maple Festival" but since we didn't actually spend that much time there and instead enjoyed Highland County as a whole, this title is better suited.

So over the weekend we decided to take a day trip to Monterey, VA, to the Sugar Maple Festival. It's a festival celebrating the yummy maple syrup that comes from the trees way up there in the cold mountains of Highland County. It was about 2 hours away, up and down windy (nauseating) hills on switchback roads. Once we got there we realized that really the festival is a place for people to sell their arts and crafts, homemade goods, and antiques. I like walking around looking at that kind of stuff, but Behn-not so much. And we didn't have much cash, so it was kind of a bummer to see cute stuff and not be able to purchase it (which is really ok, we don't need any more stuff in our home). It was pretty chilly up there, so we ducked into this cute restaurant for lunch. Afterwards, we made sure we got some maple syrup to take home and enjoyed a maple funnel cake (delicious!).

On the way back, we stopped in the tiny town of McDowell, VA. Behn and I both have fond memories of McDowell. When I was a kid, we went there every summer to a church camp nearby, and Behn has been there for Civil War reenactments. So we walked around and took some pics and talked about our memories. McDowell was also having a little fair, and we had just enough money to buy some honey. I would much rather buy things like maple syrup and honey from people who work hard to gather it and sell it themselves than from any old grocery store.

It was a good day overall, a nice little family day :)