Escape to Mountain Lake

Bryce is in the middle of his big Ph.D. qualifying exam. Basically, if he doesn't pass, Virginia Tech will say, "Sorry, but you can't get your Ph.D. here." (and he only has 2 shots at this--this is his first) It's been a grueling three week process. He was given a random topic on a Monday, had 2 weeks to research and write a 20 page proposal on how he would study the topic as if it were his Ph.D. focus, then has 1 more week to prepare a presentation that will be in front of 3 professors. He will present/defend his topic and research for 20 minutes and they will grill him on it for 70 minutes!! That's this Friday. :0

Well, it's been almost 3 weeks of 12-14 hour days of being locked in the library for him. So, we took a break after the first week on Saturday to go out to Mountain Lake for an evening. We cooked our dinner at home and packed it, drove about 25 minutes out there, and hiked a short ways to have some beautiful views and a relaxing time. It was just what the doctor ordered for him.


Mountain Lake, for those of you who don't know, is where the movie, Dirty Dancing, was filmed. This is one huge claim to fame for this little mountain resort...and they really soak it up. But it is a really unique place, with lots of cabins, hiking/biking trails, and one of the only natural lakes in Virginia. It's a really pretty area.

We went on the old golf course trail, which was only about 1.5 miles long. Once we reached the old golf course clubhouse, we sat down, enjoyed the view, and ate our (still warm) calzone for dinner. It was great timing too, we left around 6 pm and were back around 9:30 pm.

I enjoyed snapping photos the whole time, and Bryce enjoyed getting out.


More photos...