Archive for October, 2011

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Inspirations: A Women’s Retreat, Wintergreen, VA

Oct. 28th 2011

To All Women in Need of Rest and Relaxation,

You work hard to stand under the pressures of everyday life. You are expected to fulfill the dual roles of mother and employee while meeting every single expectation of physical perfection placed upon you by media images. You are supposed to be beautiful, popular, unique, and brilliant while in high school and then become a beautiful, popular, unique and brilliant college student, and then become the ideal wife and mother.

With all of those unrealistic expectations placed upon you, aren’t you in need of a break? The expectations along are exhausting without even attempting to fulfill them! Find your necessary rest at Wintergreen Resort’s Inspirations and Women’s Retreat, November 4-6, 2011.

Listen to a myriad if absolutely wonderful speakers who will touch on subjects like simplicity, stress management, eating healthily, and gaining clarity in life. Relax with spa treatments—massages, body wraps, nail care, skin care. Treat yourself to yoga, hot tubs, steam rooms, and saunas.

Everything at this retreat focuses on you as a woman, beautiful, powerful, capable and deserving of a brief respite. So invite your sisters, mothers, aunts, grandmothers, daughters, cousins, and best friends, and find your relaxation in a beautiful mountaintop setting. (Of course, if you’re always welcome to stay at the Iris Inn as well for a weekend of rest and relaxation!)

Posted by Tara Stoll | in Area Attractions, Group Travel | No Comments »

Halloween Trivia, 2011

Oct. 22nd 2011

Halloween is a little more than a week away, which means that you’re either scrambling to buy enough candy for trick-or-treaters, or your trying to perfect your children’s outrageous costumes (or perhaps you’re assembling your own costume….adults like dressing up too!).

Whatever the case may be, Halloween is certainly an entertaining time of year, and whether or not you’re interested in the costuming aspects of it, you have to admit that the vast amounts of sugar (particularly chocolate) are most pleasing. (We always have plenty of sugar on-hand here at the inn!)

And so, in honor of this sugary yet scary holiday, enjoy some fun facts about Halloween, courtesy of Purple Trail, the Holiday Spot, and Halloween Web:

• The tradition of carving pumpkins began with the legend of Stingy Jack, a selfish man who eventually became a ghost known as Jack of the Lantern.
• More than 93% of children, under the age of 12, will go out trick-or-treating
• Bobbing for apples is thought to have originated from the roman harvest festival that honors Pamona, the goddess of fruit trees
• Over $1.5 billion is spent on costumes each year and more than $2.5 billion on other Halloween paraphernalia
• Legend says that if a young girl puts a silver coin and rosemary under her pillow on Halloween, she will dream of her future husband.
• About 50% of adults dress up for Halloween, while 67% take part in the activities, such as parties, decorating the house and trick-or-treating with their children
• It is believed that the Irish began the tradition of Trick or Treating. In preparation for All Hallow’s Eve, Irish townsfolk would visit neighbors and ask for contributions of food for a feast in the town. 
• More than 35 million pounds of candy corn will be produced this year. That equates to nearly 9 billion pieces – enough to circle the moon nearly 4 times if laid end-to-end.

 

© Carole Pasquier

If this positively fascinating information has intrigued you, then perhaps you should consider spending your Halloween weekend at the spooky woods of the Iris Inn.

 

Posted by Tara Stoll | in Holidays, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Fallingwater Cascades, Virginia

Oct. 9th 2011

Nature is simply something indispensable, like air and light and water, that we accept as necessary to living, and the nearer we can get to it the happier we are.” — Louise Dickenson Rich

 

If you’re spending some time at the Iris Inn, and you’d like to exert some energy with a grand ol’ hike, why not try Fallingwater Cascades? Fallingwater is a beautiful 1.6 mile hike near Bedford, Virginia. It is an overall moderate trek with a few steeper, more strenuous areas thrown in, but the difficulties of those areas are lessened by stone stairways and bridges. The average amount of time that it takes to traverse this lovely loop is 1.5 hours.

 

There are two different places at which you can begin your hike. The first is the Blue Ridge Parkways milepost 83.1 at the Fallingwater Cascades Parking Lot, and the second is at milepost 83.5, the Flat Top Parking Area. After beginning on the well-traveled path that is rimmed with rhododendrons and hemlock, it is approximately 0.6 miles to the cascades.

 

The purling cascades serve to enhance the brilliance of the natural scenery, making this a lovely hike for the intermediate traveler. (It is particularly beautiful around this time of year as fall colors usurp summer hues.) Grab a friend, a bottle of water, and a camera, and enjoy the sights and sounds of Fallingwater Cascades.

 

Posted by Tara Stoll | in Hiking, Outdoor Activities | No Comments »

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