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Blogs by Elaine Olelo Masters
Glorious Leaves 10/24/2015 3:45:55 PM
Trees are celebrating on the Blue Ridge Mountains and also in Shenandoah Valley. Hurray!
Daughter Vicki with her husband Doug drove me through a glorious celebration of fall foliage today, October 24, 2015. The leaves were undoubtedly at their peak in this part of Virginia: a scattering few trees were almost bare, but most were still brilliant shades of red, gold, yellow, pink, and brown, mixed in with dark evergreens to set them off with contrast.
Huge numbers of South Asians were exclaiming and photographing the hillsides. They're everywhere! They're everywhere! Most were probably from India, but undoubtedly some were from Bangladesh and maybe Pakistan. They were all in the same country a few years back before pieces broke off, so the people have a similar look. Being formerly part of the British Commonwealth, many of the students went to English-speaking schools and many became doctors and scientists, hence it's not so difficult to get work visas in the USA. Some women were wearing saris, but bluejeans and sweatshirts were favored by most.
Today, we were traveling along the Blue Ridge Parkway, south of where we were last week on Skyline Drive. Now, a week later, the leaves were even more magnificent.
We hiked halfway around Lake Sherando and gloried in the scenery, then had a late lunch at Royal Oaks resort, a kitschy kind of place with office/store/kitchen and several cabins, plus an outdoor chapel in the woods for weddings. Cute! The proprietor said people often came there to get married and a few years later to get married to someone else after getting divorced. It's a crazy world, America.
Almost as strange as the lunch we had. They called it a St. Mary's Panini, which was cheese and a lot of other stuff including a bodacious amount of freshly fried onions. I asked the cook what was in the thing, it tasted so different. He said, it was cream cheese and basil and pesto and a lot of stuff that he threw in until it tasted right to him. I said it was interesting. True.
