Natural Bridge ~ Field Trip

When I started planning for this school year I noted that I really wanted to have more fun and go on more field trips.   So far it’s working for us!  What I love even more is when I find a really GREAT deal on a really great field trip! 

Over the weekend, Natural Bridge had a special admission price of $2 per person for Virginia residents (in addition to 1 non perishable food item per person for the food bank).  That price saved us $26 per ticket!!  We enjoyed the Wax Museum, Toy Museum, Butterfly Garden, the Caverns, the Monacan Village, the Creation Light Show and of course Natural Bridge for $8 and 4 cans of corn!

The entire day was wonderful and we all had such a great time, but the Butterfly Garden was by far the girls favorite activity.  There were so many stunning butterflies flying around, landing on you, and hiding in the foliage.  Here are a few of my favorites.

The chrysalis hutch was amazing.  There are so many different shapes and colors at this stage.  Truly amazing.

The Wax Museum was really interesting.  You start your tour in the Garden of Eden and finish up going through the Last Supper with lots of American History in between.

The walk along Cedar Creek to the Bridge is lovely.  You can hike for a little less than a mile and see the falls.  Each night at 8pm the Creation presentation takes place.  It’s incredible to sit in such a surrounding with the lights and the music and listen as Genesis Chapter 1 is read.  

A funny thing happened while we were at the Bridge (grins).  There was a pretty good sized group of Mennonite folks there during our visit.  In our area the Mennonite ladies wear a small head covering, but these  ladies had the long one that were shoulder length.  During the Creation light show you sit on benches on once side of the Bridge for the first “four days of Creation”….then the group walks under the Bridge and to a second set of benches while music plays above.  So we’re walking along to the second set of benches and I realize we’re walking along surrounded by ladies with long head coverings while music from the movie “The Ten Commandments” was playing.   It was very time warp like…and funny all at the same time to me.  My husband failed to see the humor or irony in the situation.  Perhaps you don’t get it either, maybe you just had to be there?

Anyway, moving right along.

If you ever head to Natural Bridge for the day, take a picnic lunch.  There are several snack bars onsite, but they apparently close very early (they were closed before 5pm).  There are no fast food places close by either.  There is however a very cool diner about four miles north.

Despite the funky pink and blue exterior, the diner is cool.  The interior is also pink and blue, with 50’s memorabilia everywhere.  There is even a working juke box with real records on it, and it works.   The food was really good, home cooked food.   Olivia came away feeling a bit like a character from “Grease”.

Oh yeah, and what 50’s diner is complete without King Kong?