Steak, Apples and Mud

It is crazy that I only have 5 days including today and the day my flight leaves left in the U.S.!  Things are in crunch time but I am almost completely ready!  One of the hardest things about being gone for 90 days (90! I just realized how long that is) is that I will be away from my friends, family and my loving boyfriend.  These last few days I am definitely trying to get as much time in as possible with them.  Tomorrow I have the Run For Your Lives, zombie inspired 5k (wish me luck that I don't get infected!) with my friend Cari who will be visiting me in Italy.  Also tomorrow my Papa from GA is coming to visit to see me off, definitely excited to see him as I haven't seen him since my graduation in December, too long! And Wednesday and Thursday, the boyfriend and I headed to Harrisonburg, VA the home of my Alma mater JMU for some fall adventures.

Picture from a previous visit

 On our way to Harrisonburg we stopped in Luray, VA at Dan's Steakhouse, where we are repeat visitors (as is one of the men from the reality show Moonshiners on the Discovery Channel).  Every time we are near Luray we stop here because for $30 you can get approximately half a cow's worth of delicious steak plus sides.

One of the ones I could actually reach

Then Thursday morning we engaged in a quintessential fall activity, picking apples at Carter's Mountain in Charlottesville.  It was a beautiful quiet day in the orchard overlooking the blue rolling hills of the Shenandoah valley; every time I visit I envision the scene in a painting.  The golden apples hung just out of reach of my grasping fingers so Joe picked me by the waist so I could twist the apples from their hanging stems. These apples will end up in an apple cobbler topped with vanilla ice cream this afternoon, yum!  The last time I went apple picking at this same orchard I ended up getting stuck in a tree, getting hit in the eye with a falling apple, and falling halfway through the floor of an abandoned house on the property, so this trip was relatively unadventurous!

Then in the afternoon we went mudding in Joe's Chevy.  We revved through deep puddles, mud holes and climbed up steep muddy embankments.  The truck jostled and jolted through every dip but we made it through all the obstacles.  I may have gotten his truck a little dirty...

Nothing a little cleaning won't fix