Virginia Beach - September 2016 - Day 1 & 2

September 29, 2016 (Thursday)

After getting home from work, we headed out for another adventure – this time our ultimate destination was Virginia Beach.  We stopped along the Ohio turnpike for some dinner and made it just outside of Pittsburgh for the night. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in North Huntingdon, PA.  The room was fine, nothing overly fancy, but the weird thing was that there wasn’t a bathtub, just a shower.

September 30, 2016 (Friday)

Harpers Ferry NHP

After a quick breakfast at the hotel, we headed out to Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.  There is a $10 entrance fee to enter the park.  Once you park there is a small visitor center, restrooms and a bus stop.  The bus ride is free and takes you to the Park area.  The ride is short and there is an auto recording that tells you a little about Harper’s Ferry. The town is very charming.  Many of the buildings are open for viewing. Some of the buildings just have display, but some also have videos. One of the buildings has flood levels recorded, which is kind of interesting. Harper’s Ferry is probably best known for John Brown’s raid on the Armory in 1959 and the role in the American Civil War. John Brown was an abolitionist that led a group of 21 men on the raid of the arsenal. His intention of the raid was to initiate a slave uprising throughout the South. The raid was short lived and did not result in the outcome that Brown had intended.  In the end, Brown was tried for treason against the State of Virginia and was convicted and hung. The raid was a catalyst for the Civil War. Harpers Ferry changed hands eight times during the Civil War.

I had done a lot of research on ways to get around the DC traffic – per TripAdvisor recommendations we opted to pin Winchester, VA has a waypoint in our GPS.  The drive was nice and traffic really only got backed up when we were trying to get onto the road that we had been avoiding (I-95) We stopped in Richmond, VA for dinner.  Mike had heard about the GWARbar (as in GWAR the metal band) and suggested eating there. The reviews were good, so we checked it out. The menu was interesting and the food was good. Service was just okay. 

Finally, we ended our night at our Virginia Beach location – Ocean Beach Club.  The place was right on the beach, we did not have an ocean view.  The room really needed the paint freshened up and the carpet could have used a good cleaning also.