Road trip to Virginia! - Day 1 & 2

November 7, 2013

Hooray – time for another road trip! This adventure took us back to Williamsburg, VA.  We left after work and made it to Monroeville, PA for the night. We stayed at the Holiday Inn – it was a nice hotel. The room had nice decor, was clean, and had a very comfortable bed. The staff was also friendly. I received my welcome gift (bottle of water and some cookies) as being a hotel rewards member.

November 8, 2013

Manassas National Battlefield

On the road again…our first stop for the day was the Manassas National Battlefield Park (free admission). We started the visit with viewing the displays set up at the Henry Hill Visitor Center. There is a forty-five minute video available; however, we had missed the starting time. The video discusses the first and second battles of Manassas. There was a walking tour that discussed the second battle and we were able to join the tour. The tour lasted around an hour and it just happened to start at the first stop of the driving tour – Brawner Farm. There is also a walking tour of the first battle of Manassas at the Henry Hill Visitor Center, but the times did not work out for our visit. The most interesting thing that was learned was that one of the Generals had their troops march 55 miles in just two days during the second battle of Bull Run! The driving tour was 18 miles long and had stops at key locations of the Second Manassas Battlefield.

Prince William Forest Park Trail

Prince William Forest Park was our next destination.  The park is about 35 miles south of Washington DC. There are hiking trails and camping offered at this National Park Site. Prince William Forest Park has the largest Piedmont forest in the NPS.  The visitor center had a very limited amount of displays, which talked about how the park was used by the Office of Strategic Services (forerunner to the CIA) as a training camp for spies during World War II. We had time to take a hike during our visit, it was nice but the trail we took did not really offer much that you could not find elsewhere.  There is also a nine mile scenic drive loop, which we drove on for a little ways.

Our drive continued to our final destination – Williamsburg, VA.