For this past Fourth of July weekend, a few of us NYC-based ACF alumni drove down to Shenandoah National Park, where we met up with some of the DC-based alumni to spend the weekend hiking and hanging out. Although the scenery was not quite as dramatic as my recent trip to the Canadian Rockies, it was still great catching up with everyone, and it included a very special moment: David proposed to Amy! (And she said yes!) But first, the hikes.
We didn’t do very much hiking this trip, as not everyone on the trip was a particularly enthusiastic hiker. That was fine with me, as the main highlight of the trip was obviously going to be the proposal, not the hiking. Still, we managed to get in a couple of short but sweet hikes, the first of which was up Hawksbill Mountain, which has an admirable vantage point at the summit.
We took a wrong turn on the way back and ended up walking along a horse trail to get back to the cars, but this was good fun, as it was all downhill anyway.
On Thursday afternoon, after finishing the Hawksbill Mountain hike, we drove to the nearby Luray Caverns to take a look. We first stopped by the McDonald’s nearby for a post-hike meal, where I encountered severe culture shock: the person behind the counter spoke in a Southern accent! Prior to this visit to Virginia, the only time I can really remember spending an appreciable amount of time in the South was back in fifth grade, when I spent a week at Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama.1 So you can imagine my rather severe shock at the turn of events, which prompted me to continue making outrageous geographical claims: this time, that Virginia must be part of the Deep South.2
Anyway, after this linguistic and geographic shock to the system, we proceeded to the caverns themselves. We were not disappointed: the caverns were rather spectacular, with lots of cool hanging stalactites and stalagmites. (Yes, I had to look up the spellings there.) I was particularly enamored of Dream Lake, a shallow pool in an enclosed space that perfectly reflects the stalactite formations above it, creating a surreal, dream-like effect. I tried to take some pictures of it, but this turned out to be rather challenging, given my complete non-expertise in photography.
The rest of the caverns were also okay, but honestly Dream Lake was by far my favorite. The caverns were quite heavily developed, with plenty of artificial lighting and a paved, wheelchair-accessible walkway throughout. I don’t say this as a bad thing—it’s quite nice that everyone can now enjoy this natural wonder!
One particularly promising but ultimately disappointing feature was the stalactite organ: some engineer long ago had apparently installed a bunch of electrically-actuated hammers throughout the caves. These were wired to an organ keyboard; when each key is pressed, a hammer somewhere strikes a stalactite precisely chosen to vibrate at the right frequency to play the corresponding note. While the concept sounded promising, it turned out to be a bit disappointing in real life: we listened to a performance of the classic hymn “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” but none of us could really hear the resemblance.
On Friday morning, we did another hike, this time up to Mary’s Rock. The view was similarly nice when compared to the Hawksbill summit; I suspect the same holds for all of the well-known hikes in Shenandoah, such as Old Rag. I don’t think I really need to include another picture of this one; most of the good pictures I got were pictures of my friends, which I obviously won’t post to my personal blog.
Edwin also discovered a crack in one of the rock outcrops from which a cool breeze (presumably from underground) blew, forming a sort of natural air conditioning. He wanted to call it “Baik’s Caverns,” but pointing out the rather modest size of the nook, I proposed that “Edwin’s Crevice” might be more appropriate.
Okay fine, I know you didn’t come here for the hiking pictures, so here’s the real highlight of the weekend: the proposal! This was the rough plan of attack:
I’m told there was a contingency plan in case she said no and ran away, but thankfully this was not exercised, as she said yes. The plan mostly went off without a hitch, though there was some last-minute scrambling to get all the pieces in place, and it turned out that Amy already knew that it was going to happen, as her mom had spilled the proverbial beans.
My job in the whole affair (which I’m proud to say was executed most excellently) was to be the chauffeur, driving Amy to the cabin for the proposal and then high-tailing it out of there. Naturally, I deserve an immense amount of the credit for their successful engagement and expect front-row seats at the eventual wedding.
The trip was pretty fun, although a bit short as most of us wanted to be back in New York for Sunday service at First Baptist. I tried Starlink for the first time at our rental cabin; it actually wasn’t that bad, although I also didn’t really try anything stressful like watching a video.
I had some surprisingly good food on this trip: we grilled lots of meat (bulgogi! pork belly! galbi!) at the cabin, courtesy of our noble chef Edwin, who soldiered on through the night in front of the grill. We also had lunch at a solid Korean place near Washington, DC on the way back to New York on Saturday; we got to meet up with some other ACF alumni in the area (and Ryan!), which is always fun. Some Nertz was played at a local dessert place; I’m proud to say that my Nertz ability has not declined in my old age.
Well, I did once visit Disney World in Florida as a kid, and I spent a weekend in Atlanta for a quizbowl tournament back in high school, but even I don’t count those.↩︎
For the benefit of anyone reading this who doesn’t know me in real life: I’m joking, of course, about these outrageous claims. I find it funny to make such claims, especially to the true Southerners at church who grew up in places like Alabama. Other outlandish geographical claims that I’ve been known to advance include: (1) upstate New York begins above Columbus Circle; (2) if the street number has three digits, you’re in Canada; and (3) any land east of the East River might as well be Narnia. As one might imagine, these go over well with people at my church, which is located on the Upper West Side and contains several Columbia students.↩︎
Comments