Beautiful Highland County Virginia, located near the western border of Virginia and West Virginia, hosts an annual maple festival! We live about an 1 1/2 hours away from the festival, but decided that MAPLE ANYTHING was worth the drive. Turns out - it was! It was a GORGEOUS spring day and the drive was breathtaking. It took us through mountains and the Shenandoah valley and over rivers and through woods. 
We arrived in the early afternoon ready and willing to learn about MAPLE SYRUP! 
The little town of McDowell was our first stop. There we met a fun Old Time-y Blue Grass band and took a tour of the "Sugar House" country store.
Back behind the Sugar House general store they made MAPLE SYRUP!!! We learned that the same tree can be tapped for more than 40 years! Sugar Maples can put out different quantities and qualities of sugar water every single day during the winter months. Freezing weather is helpful in pushing the sap on through the tap. This past winter was extremely mild and therefore the output of the Sugar Maples was not as great as it usually is. There was still plenty for us to taste and buy, though! We learned that there are two different "grades" of syrup, Grade A and Grade B. Grade A has three sub-grades: light, medium, and dark. These three are all created from the sugar water of the tree. Grade B actually has the sap in it as well. Grade A dark has a strong maple flavor, but the Grade B actually has the strongest flavor of all because of the sap in it. Some people prefer the Grade A because the sap gives the syrup too strong a flavor and too pungent a smell. I actually preferred the Grade B. If you are going to enjoy maple syrup, you might as well go all the way, right??? We bought ourselves a quart. 
We also learned about the process of making maple sugar and and candy. Yum!
This is where the sugar water is boiled down. Nothing is added to make the syrup. No preservatives. Just reduced and reduced and reduced by evaporation. 
We got to try some of the syrup from these vats. 
After the Sugar House tour it was time to dance! Lilia LOVED this little band that was playing outside. 
She wanted to be as close as possible. 
Here she is dancing with her daddy :)After our tour in McDowell we headed on to Monterrey for more MAPLE and some arts and crafts vendors.
Monterrey was a quaint country town with lots of old buildings and friendly people. 
The views were spectacular. 
I feel like we haven't even brushed the surface of things to do in lovely Virginia. This festival is one of literally hundreds of other fun things to do in our area. We only have a little over two years left on this tour and I am feeling the panic already that I had as our tour in Japan came to a close. There is just never enough time to see everything! I am making it our family goal to get out of the house and GO SOMEWHERE at least once a month if not twice. I am SO glad we got to enjoy this particular festival and hopefully there will be many more like it in the near future.
We left Highland County with a jug of syrup, maple doughnuts - still hot!, maple (OH MY HEAVENS GOOD!) fudge, and maple ice cream. I think we satisfied our maple cravings at least temporarily. Yum!! 
