So this weekend I ended up staying around the
Berkeley Springs area in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. This is a nice little area that looks quaint like so many of the small towns throughout the Western Reserve area of Ohio. This is a part of the state that has grown very popular with people who work in the Washington, D.C. area which has caused a great influx of wealth and prosperity. The houses in this area are just huge and the land is worth loads. I last was in this area when the WVU Marching Band came through here on the way to the Maryland game and we stayed with local parents of the high school bands in the area. We got a great host family who fed us well and even had a hot tub. But I digress.
Berkeley Springs is known for its hot springs which stay at a natural 74 degrees in the center of town in what is now designated as a state park. Here is a picture of some of the people enjoying the springs. While Kay and I were there we noted that the baths were really a place for the common people and I wondered how it was back in the days when George Washington bathed here (
see picture of his personal bath). It was a real contrast to the extremely well dressed people who were walking around the shops and browsing through the high end art stores on the main street. In fact, one of the families even had their kids wrapped in beach towels with the confederate flag printed on them ... nice.
Just up the road from the downtown area is Berkeley Castle. If I was paying more attention I could tell you more about it but the place was privately owned now with "no trespassing" signs all over the place. There are lots of neat little things in and around downtown Berkeley Springs and I enjoyed walking around and looking at the shops, taking in the landscape, and enjoying being on a mini-vacation. Just up the road from Berkeley Springs is this beautiful scenic overlook (pictured below) where you could see three states (Maryland, Pennsylvania, and the West Virginia town of Great Cacapon just below in the valley). It was a hell of a sight and there were so many others like it along the drive between the towns that we saw Saturday and when we were driving over to Harpers Ferry on Sunday. But that's a story for another post.
Labels: signs, travel, wv
# scribbled by jedijawa : 5/31/2007
So this weekend I ended up staying around the Berkeley Springs area in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. This is a nice little area that looks quaint like so many of the small towns throughout the Western Reserve area of Ohio. This is a part of the state that has grown very popular with people who work in the Washington, D.C. area which has caused a great influx of wealth and prosperity. The houses in this area are just huge and the land is worth loads. I last was in this area when the WVU Marching Band came through here on the way to the Maryland game and we stayed with local parents of the high school bands in the area. We got a great host family who fed us well and even had a hot tub. But I digress.
Berkeley Springs is known for its hot springs which stay at a natural 74 degrees in the center of town in what is now designated as a state park. Here is a picture of some of the people enjoying the springs. While Kay and I were there we noted that the baths were really a place for the common people and I wondered how it was back in the days when George Washington bathed here (see picture of his personal bath). It was a real contrast to the extremely well dressed people who were walking around the shops and browsing through the high end art stores on the main street. In fact, one of the families even had their kids wrapped in beach towels with the confederate flag printed on them ... nice.
Just up the road from the downtown area is Berkeley Castle. If I was paying more attention I could tell you more about it but the place was privately owned now with "no trespassing" signs all over the place. There are lots of neat little things in and around downtown Berkeley Springs and I enjoyed walking around and looking at the shops, taking in the landscape, and enjoying being on a mini-vacation. Just up the road from Berkeley Springs is this beautiful scenic overlook (pictured below) where you could see three states (Maryland, Pennsylvania, and the West Virginia town of Great Cacapon just below in the valley). It was a hell of a sight and there were so many others like it along the drive between the towns that we saw Saturday and when we were driving over to Harpers Ferry on Sunday. But that's a story for another post.
