On Thursday, we just decided kind of last minute to go somewhere. I googled, "places within 2 hours of Greensboro, NC" and Roanoke came up. We left the 'Boro around 2:30 on Friday and headed north on 220. I came across a website for Natural Bridge Va. I had heard about this place before but thought it was probably some cheesy tourist trap, which it kind of is (note the putt-putt course below), but we decided to go anyway.
We figured we would go to the bridge on Saturday. We checked into our hotel around 5:00 and decided that since it was so nice (70 degrees and sunny) we would go to the bridge that night instead of Saturday because it was going to be cold on Saturday. We went to the bridge and it is actually pretty dang neat. When we got there, the lady at the desk said, "make sure you stay for our show tonight at 9pm." We had Maddie with us, but decided we would see how she did and decided to stay there until the 9 o'clock show. We sat on these green benches and someone read the Book of Genesis while a light show against the rock bridge was going on. They didn't read the whole book of Genesis, just the story of how God created the earth. While I was sitting there with Kelly and Maddie listening, I was reminded that the God that created the universe loves each one of us. That's a crazy thought, but one that I've been trying to pass along to high school kids for the past 9 years. Next weekend, I'm taking a group of freshmen camping along the Appalachain Trail.
It's kind of a transition weekend for these guys as they have been led all year by seniors at Grimsley High School and this will be my first trip with these guys as their leader. This will be my third group of freshmen at Grimsley since moving to Greensboro in 2002. Last week I met with some of my favorite guys in the world--Todd, Chris, and Eric who were in town for Easter. I was their YL leader when they were in school and now they are each getting ready to be seniors in college(wow time flies!). Each of them is involved in Young Life, either as leaders or working at the camps during the summer. Each of them is spreading this same message of how the God that created the universe is crazy about them. 
Ok back to our trip, we left the natural bridge at 10:00pm. Maddie did great. Kelly and I stopped and grabbed dinner on the way back to our hotel. On Saturday morning we headed to downtown Roanoke. They have a small outdoor market that we checked out and then ate lunch.
We then headed to the Roanoke Star! Its the biggest star in the world built by man. Here are a few pictures. 
One thing I noticed about Virginia. There is a Zoo on just about every corner. The Natural Bridge Zoo, the Roanoke Star Zoo, the I-81 Zoo, the Dodge Store on US220 Zoo(they do have great corn-dogs), the Zoo that is Martinsville-especially on race weekend. Here's a picture of Maddie with a real bear just outside the Natural Bridge Zoo.
A totally unrelated picture from Easter.
