What am I doing for Spring Break?

Well, for the first time ever, I am not going home for Spring Break. Instead, I'll heading to Chippokes Plantation State Park in Virginia this weekend!

With recreational activities and opportunities to look at life in a bygone era, Chippokes Plantation offers something for everyone. A working farm since 1617, visitors may tour an antebellum mansion, stroll through formal gardens, or view a collection of antique farm and forestry equipment and a sawmill exhibit at the Farm and Forestry Museum.

But I'm not just going there for the beauty and history. I'm going there to help preserve the park as part of CMU's Alternative Breaks program. This will be my first weeklong AB, and almost everyone who's been on an AB before said they had a blast!

Says the Virginia Conservation and Rec website:

Chippokes Plantation State Park is one of the oldest working farms in the United States. Chippokes is a living historical exhibit located in a rural agricultural area along the James River in Surry County. In addition, the park has a wide variety of traditional park offerings, including a swimming complex, visitor center, picnic facilities, and hiking and biking trails. The plantation has kept its original boundaries since the 1600s and has a variety of cultivated gardens and native woodland. The formal gardens surrounding the Chippokes Mansion are accented by azaleas, crepe myrtle, boxwood and seasonal flowers. The plantation grounds are also home to the Chippokes Farm and Forestry Museum.

Chippokes Plantation State Park is operated by the Department of Conservation and Recreation in cooperation with the Chippokes Plantation Farm Foundation. The Virginia General Assembly created the foundation in 1977 to establish, administer and maintain the model farm. Funding for the foundation comes from farmland rent payments, donations, admissions and gift shop sales.

I will be back on Sunday, the 15th. Then (or shortly thereafter), I will have plenty of pictures to show you!

So look out Tim Kaine, Mark Warner, Jim Webb, and Bobby Scott... here I come!