Virginia: Old Blandford Church & Cemetary

A view of the church from the outside...looks simple enough

Again while on my business trip I made some time after work to visit this place. I just heard that it was one of the nearby attractions, but didn't think it was going to be much to see. The first issue I had was that when I looked at the hours, it was only open until 5PM. I got off work and headed straight there thinking I would still have plenty of time to check everything out. I found out when I arrived that you're only allowed inside the church on one of their tours. Even though the tour had already started, they let me buy a ticket and join them in progress. The church itself isn't too large, so I was surprised there was an actual tour of the place.

I joined mid-tour and found out quickly it was pretty much all for the stained glass windows done by a fellow named Louis Comfort Tiffany. Check out a website about this guy here & his Wikipedia page here. I can now see why they only let folks inside with a tour guide. The stained glass windows are just plain amazing! The guide gives a lot of history about each window (every window in the church is a Tiffany stained glass masterpiece) and describes the detail that went into each piece of art. As you're looking at the window, you can see more and more detail that would probably be missed if there were no guide there. Another reason I can see for the tour guide is that these are basically priceless pieces of art now...they wouldn't want anyone doing anything stupid to them.

This window commemorates the state of Missouri.

I took this picture before they told me that no photos were allowed....oops

Unfortunately a picture just doesn't do it justice!

The church itself was built in 1735, but abandoned in 1806. After the civil war "The Ladies' Memorial Association" turned it into a memorial for the confederate soldiers that died. There is a stained glass Tiffany window for each of the confederate states. The Blandford Cemetery, one of the oldest and largest in America, is resting place of some 30,000 Confederate soldiers who lost their lives during the Siege of Petersburg.

Outside the church with the Virginia battle flag

Once the tour was over, I headed out and checked out the confederate cemetery on my own. The cemetery is very large, so I drove my rental car around and stopped at some of the more interesting sites. Check out the photos below:

Several tombstones in the cemetery 
ranging from very small to quite large

The Memorial Arch at Blandford Cemetery, constructed in 1913

Some of the different flags of confederate soldiers from different states

An angel headstone

The Bolling Family Mausoleum

The visit was a lot more interesting that I originally thought it was going to be. I was in awe of the stained glass inside the church and checking out the cemetery was a very solemn experience. In school of course we would be taught about the civil war, but I never gave it too much thought after that. In my child's mind at the time slavery was bad and the good guys from the North won the war and freed the slaves. Of course there was a lot more to that, and visiting places like this really help wrap your mind around all the sorrow and realities that go along with war. I would recommend anyone in the area to make this visit...just go before the last tour starts if possible :)

Washington State: Olympic National Park (Olympic Hot Springs)

We've lived in Washington State for most our lives, but had yet to visit the Olympic National Park. So we decided to pack up and go for a little hiking adventure. We weren't sure what to see or where to go, so we just picked an address we found on google and headed out.

We ended up going to the Elwha Valley portion of the Olympic National Park. I was surprised that in order to drive up to the trail head that we had to pay $20 for parking. Once parked we headed out with a couple of backpacks, loaded with water and snacks for our day hike.

The trailhead marker at the end of the parking area

We started our hike with nowhere in particular to go, we just wanted to get out of the house, see some nature, and get a little exercise.

The start of the trail is wide and well maintained

The start as you can see above is an easy trail with a slight incline. We headed out and just enjoyed the scenery. Not knowing what to expect and hoping that we may see a waterfall or two. The day was nice and the scenery was amazing.

This was the first bridge we came across along the trail

The first bridge we came across along the trail was pretty big. In the picture above you can see our friend standing in the middle of the bridge. We kept going soaking up all the scenery and nature.'

Here you can see the trail is smaller and trees are everywhere

We continued through the forest...amazed at all the large trees everywhere. In the picture above you can see how small our friends are with all the trees around them.

The second bridge (well more like a large log) that we came across

After crossing the second bridge we decided to take a break and eat snacks...and drink water. This is one thing that is important to bring...water! There are no water fountains or any other service areas out on the trail. This particular spot was pretty cool, we enjoyed the running water all around us and even a little waterfall as well.

Some girls hanging out in front of the small waterfall

After our short break we continued to head up the trail. We then started to smell what I'm going to describe as a strong sulfur smell. We came across the first natural hot spring on the trail. We had already seen a couple people walking back on the trail with towels around them as if they had just finished swimming. We now see that they were probably hanging out in the hot spring. There were a few people in there when we arrived. We had to go up and stick our hands in to feel just how hot it is. It felt pretty similar to a hot tub. This is just one of several hot springs I've read that are located around the park. The water is heated from the earth's interior.

Looking up at the hot spring from the hiking trail

Folks just relaxing in the hot spring

We continued hiking up the trail for a while, but then decided to turn around and head back. We realized we could have used some more water along the way, we finished ours on the way back and were still pretty thirsty by the time we arrived at our car. Our total hike was a little over 8 miles. More than we had planned for a first time here, but we were enjoying ourselves so much that we just kept wandering around. From the trailhead to the hot springs is about 2.4 miles.

When we got back to the car we all drank a bunch of water we had left in the car and ate more snacks. On the drive back we stopped to take a quick picture of what we thought was a dried up lake due to drought conditions, but I later read was a dam removal for the Elwha River restoration. You can take a look at the pictures below to see the dramatic difference now that the dam has been removed.

We all had a blast and look forward to checking out a lot more of the hiking trails that the Olympic National Park as to offer. The place is beautiful!!