Andrea Sutcliffe - Romantic Virginia: More Than 300 Things to Do for Southern Lovers

ALSO BY ANDREA SUTCLIFFE Touring the Shenandoah Valley BackroadsFirst-Job Survival GuideAmazing U.S. Geography: A Book of Answers for KidsAmazing World Geography: A Book of Answers for Kids EDITED BY ANDREA SUTCLIFFE Mighty Rough Times, I Tell You: Personal Accounts of Slavery in TennesseeThe New York Public Library Writers Guide to Style and UsageNumbers: How Many, How Long, How Far, How Much Published by John F. Blair, Publisher Copyright 2003 by Andrea Sutcliffe All rights reserved under International and Pan American Copyright Conventions The paper in this book meets the guidelines
for permanence and durability of the
Committee on Production Guidelines COVER CREDITS Front cover: Governors Place Garden, Williamsburg Back cover: left, Skyline Drive looking toward Stony Man Peak Back cover: right, Sand dunes along the Virginia Beach shore International Standard Serial Number 1542-4669 ORIGINAL SERIES DESIGN BY ANNE RICHMOND BOSTON
COMPOSITION BY DEBRA LONG HAMPTON To Ed, for all the romantic times weve shared in VirginiaContentsVirginia For the past year, while combing the state for romantic places and activities, Ive asked almost everyone Ive met to tell me about their favorite spots. A few people went the extra mile, and Id like to thank them here: Tom Orlowski, Peggy and John Roethel, Kathleen Sullivan, Jeannie Phifer, Erena Hunsicker, Jacquie Colligan, Julie Pastor, and Caroline Kettlewell. For more than three decades, the state tourism office has declared that Virginia is for lovers. This often-imitated slogan has an interesting origin.

As first conceived, there were to be several slogans; ads would run with headings like Virginia is for history lovers, Virginia is for beach lovers, and Virginia is for mountain lovers. But the decision was made to drop the modifiers and use one phrase instead of many. In doing so, the meaning got turned around a bit, with the emphasis on the lovers themselves. Either way you read it, the slogan rings truethere is much for lovers to love about Virginia, for the very reasons the creators of the original phrases had in mind. This beautiful and diverse state offers something for everyone and every interesthistoric sites, beaches, rivers, valleys, mountains, gardens, sports, music, the arts, good food and wine, charming places to stay, and more. The purpose of this book, unlike other Virginia travel guides that focus on family travel, is to offer a hand-picked selection of activities, destinations, restaurants, and lodgings that will especially appeal to couples.

Most travel guides are organized by geographic destination. Again, this book is different. To help couples find their favorite things to do, I have organized Romantic Virginia by activity and then, within each activity, by geographic location. Icons identify each attractions location in one of the states five regions:

	Northern Virginia
	Eastern Virginia
	Central Virginia
	The Shenandoah Valley
	Southwestern Virginia

Then, within each section, the places or activities are generally arranged from north to south. The map on pages defines the five regions and their icons. To help couples plan a tripwhether for a day or a weekIve included Romantic Getaway sidebars for 14 Virginia cities or regions.

These sidebars list ideas and suggestions for places to see, stay, and eat. Most are described in the books main sections, but here and there, Ive added a few other options. For example, Ive included restaurants that did not make the cut as destinations for a romantic meal but that otherwise are top choices for lunch or dinner. So what exactly do I mean by romantic? Well, romantic is more than what appeals to starry-eyed honeymooners. The definition for this book is broader. First, romantic means being truly togetheralone at last!away from jobs, children, parents, even friends.

It can be an evening out at an elegant restaurant, with candles and a linen tablecloth, where the two of you can focus on each other for a change. It can be an afternoon spent sampling wines at one of Virginias many wineries. It can be a weekend at a small inn or bed-and-breakfast, where you sleep late and (at a reasonable hour) your host serves you a four-course breakfast in an antique-filled dining room or on a garden patio. It can be hiking hand in hand through the woods to a waterfall. It can be learning something new together at a history or science museum. It can be buying a painting at an art show or gallery or admiring great art together in one of the states art museums.

It can be getting married at one of Virginias many romantic old homes or gardens. Second, romantic means nostalgictaking a long, loving look into the past. Its imagining the first settlers toughing out the winter at Jamestown, or picturing Thomas Jefferson sipping Virginias first wines in his dining room at Monticello. It can also mean reliving your own past, by getting car-hop service at one of the states surviving drive-in restaurants, slurping down an icecream soda at an old-time pharmacy fountain, or putting your arm around your sweetheart at a drive-in theater. Third, romantic means just plain having fun. In Virginia in the summertime, for instance, you can spread out a blanket, sit on the lawn, and enjoy an amazing variety of musical and theatrical performances: country, classical, rock-and-roll, jazz, rhythm-and-blues, opera, and even Shakespeare.

If the bugs bother you and the weather isnt right, you can reserve a good seat inside one of the states fine theaters or music halls, from Alexandria to Richmond, from Roanoke to Norfolk. Romantic fun can also mean tubing down a river, skiing a slope, swinging at a golf ball, cheering on your favorite minor-league baseball team, soaring in a hot-air balloon, or watching a college football game on a perfect Virginia fall day. Finally, romantic means going out and doing something completely different. If youve never gone Whitewater rafting, sailed on a tall ship, walked through an old-growth forest, or tapped your feet to bluegrass music in an old country store, then why not try? If you do it together, youll double the fun, and that is truly romantic. I hope this book gives you plenty of ideas to launch a romantic adventure of your own. Have a great time! HAVE I LEFT OUT YOUR FAVORITE THING TO DO IN VIRGINIA? Because Romantic Virginia is intended to be an idea book, not an encyclopedic reference to all thats available in Virginia, I have provided, at the bottom of the 14 Romantic Getaway sidebars, contact information for visitor bureaus in the major cities and regions.

Next page