Once we were done in DC, we headed for Virginia. We spent the night in Virginia Beach, which was absolutely beautiful. The view below was actually taken from our hotel room… there was literally boardwalk and sand between us and the water. The weather was lovely as well! We didn’t find much to do there, so we stopped at Bad Ass Coffee for some breakfast and headed on our way.

Our friends Chris and Kassie had recommended we take the long way from Virginia to North Carolina via the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was an absolutely stunning drive and I got to check another item off my bucket list – to see Fall on the East Coast.

We pulled off down a little back road to this hole in the wall place called “Gertie’s” for lunch. It claimed fresh BBQ daily and all of the locals were there, so we decided to give it a try. The food was really good! We headed back out on the Parkway for the rest of our drive.

The views from this road were absolutely stunning – you literally drive along the ridge and can see all the different valleys. The trees were beautiful as well, although we were probably just a few days late for the actual peak. Poor Mike got really good at stopping in the middle of the road without getting us killed every time I yelled “STOP!” to take a picture.

That was pretty much it for Virginia… next stop, North Carolina!