Our Western Virginia Vacation

A couple of weeks ago, we spent our vacation at our timeshare at Woodstone Meadows, part of the Massanutten Resort in the mountains near Harrisonburg, Virginia. The downtown is about twenty minutes away. It's being revitalized with some great places to eat and drink. The local eateries we visited this trip included the local microbrewery Cally's Restaurant and Brewing Co, and Jack Brown's Beer and Burger Joint. We had drinks at the fashionable Clementine Cafe, then played trivia downstairs at the Ethiopian restaurant Blue Nile.

We ate twice at our favorite -- the Local Chop and Grill House on West Gay Street. The place looks like an industrial seed company from the outside, but it was renovated and stylized in 2009. The first time we got there after 9 pm, so we ate off the bar menu. The bar, just inside and to the left, has a musical decor, with modern art with musical instrument themes mounted on brickfaced walls. A fireplace in the corner suggests the bar would be a cozy spot in the winter. A small stage, wooden dance floor, and sound system come into play when live bands perform on weekends.  They had $2 sliders (bison, salmon, chuck, chickpea, lamb, and duck); we each had three plus some fries. We shared calamari and aranchini de riso for appetizers. We enjoyed some of the roughly two dozen beers on tap.

We returned to the Local Chop and Grill House for their dinner selections. Their dinner menu has a dozen or so meat choices, which you pair with a cooking method, a dipping sauce, and two sides. My wife had a chicken breast with the seasonal black pepper rub and arugula pesto dipping sauce. I had a pork chop with the house's salt, pepper, paprika and cumin rub and mango bbq dipping sauce. We started with a superb 2008 bottle of Jefferson Vineyards pinot gris. For appetizers I had a corn chili and my wife had a salad. We finished dinner with dessert and coffee for a fantastic meal. The restaurant has a nice loft up to the right, some seating on the main floor, and a welcoming covered porch with jet black torch lights spaced periodically along a rail that encloses outdoor seating.

We did the beer dinner at Massanutten's Conference Center, where Paul Hansen served as our beer sommelier for a wonderful multi-course meal with carefully selected brewed accompaniments. We also had a few meals at the resort's Fareways Restaurant, which had live music.

During our stay, we took advantage of the resort's fully equipped gym, did some swimming, and played miniature golf. We dropped by Le Club and played air hockey, a Ninja Turtles video game for four, then a few rounds of pool, and plenty of rounds of an ice hockey game.

Lest we fear anything during our stay, the resort uses Hawk Security Systems Inc (We keep an eye on the creeps so you can get your sleep).