Blue Ridge Mountain Home: June 2010

Cacapon State Park in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia

Myself and my Dad at the mountaintop overlook at Cacapon State Park where one can look east from the Appalachian Mountains out over the Shenandoah Valley and see the Blue Ridge Mountains further east

View of Camp-fire area where we roasted marshmellows in evening overlooking the lake at Rocky Gap State Park near Cumberland, Md.

Outside pool area at Rocky Gap

Outside grill area at Rocky Gap

Inside swimming pool at Rocky Gap

My Dad - Rick Hopper - at Rocky Gap State Park in western Maryland near Cumberland.

Myself - Kristin Hopper - at Rocky Gap State Park

Rocky Gap State Park

Mariemont (a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio) - a national examplar of town planning

Mariemont Recreation Center Parish building

Village of Mariemont Square - with movie theater behind fountain

Mariemont Inn located on Mariemont Square (with its Tudor style architecture)

Mariemont Inn

Mariemont Inn room - with television hidden behind painting over fireplace (push button and television appears)

Mariemont Community Church (technically it is the oldest church in America since it's stone roof is from a 1200's medieval England tithe barn)

Mariemont Community Church - viewed from park between it and original Mariemont Square

Mariemont Community Church - criminal's chapel (patterned after medieval Anglo-Saxon churches where criminals were not allowed in main chapel of church)

Mariemont - original square viewed from park (and fountain) separating it from Mariemont Community Church. Mariemont was designed by John Nolen who is credited with inventing the principles and practice of city planning.

Myself with my Mom in park separating original Mariemont Square from Mariemont Community Church

Myself with my Mom at original Mariemont Square across from church.

Frisch's Mainliner in Fairfax next to Mariemont, Ohio. Frisch's was the first restaurant to invent the double-deck hamburger.

White Castle Hamburger - they are so small and inexpensive that one buys a bag full

Cincinnati J.A. Roebling Suspension Bridge - built before Brooklyn Bridge (both same size)

Delta Queen - oldest continuously operating steamboat in America

Cincinnati Union Terminal - one of the best examples of art deco architecture

Inside Cincinnati Union Terminal

Mosacic Mural Inside Cincinnati Union Terminal

Mosaic Mural Inside Cincinnati Union Terminal

Myself -- Kristin Hopper - eating at the Rookwood Pottery in Cincinnati

Mountain Thunder Steam Excursion Train in Cumberland, Maryland

Mountain Thunder steam engine excursion train in Cumberland, Maryland

Mountain Thunder

Serpent Mound - an effigy mound built by the Fort Ancient Culture prehistoric Native American Indians of America. It is located near Peebles, Ohio in southwestern, Ohio. It is ranked number one on UNESCO's World Heritage Site (similar to Stonehenge, it served as an astronomical observatory for mound builder Indians of America. It is located on a unique rock formation where magnetic compasses do not work and which attracts an extremely large number of lightning strikes during any thunderstorm. Unlike some mounds built by the mound builder Indians, not human remains or artifacts were buried in the mound. Nearby are conical mounds built by the much older culture of the Adena mound builder Indians. Similar mounds built by the Adena, Hopewell, and Fort Ancient Culture Indians were built throughout all of Ohio with Hamilton County where Cincinnati is located having over 240 mounds. Some archaelogists believe that a great road existed between the Newark Earthworks (the largest mound complex in the world located in Newark, Ohio which is also an astronomical observatory and the large complex of Indian mounds in Chillicothe, Ohio (with both of these complexes built by the Hopewell Culture of mound builder Indians).

Serpent Mound - an aerial view that allows one to see the effigy of a serpent swallowing an egg or some other object. Each of the curves point to sun and moon rises for the change of seasons.