Wednesday August 6. Melissa and I left at 8:00ish and arrived at the Harpers Ferry Visitor Center around 9:30.

We took a shuttle to Lower Town. A little after 10:00 we arrived at a spot called The Point, where the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers meet.

We hiked the Maryland Heights Trail...

...up to Overlook Cliff, which gives a nice view of the town of Harpers Ferry and the surrounding rivers.

Panoramic shot.

It was a steep hike and we were tired, but nonetheless we decided to hike up another mile on the Stone Fort Trail to the remnants of a stone fort.

It was cloudy and balmy all day, but I still sweated up a storm because most of the hike was uphill. When we returned to Lower Town a little after 2:00 we were tired and sore. We got ice cream and walked around, ducking into shops and museums. The streets are as steep and hilly as the hiking trail. I didn't get any photos but Melissa took this one from below the train tracks.

We walked up to the ruins of an abandoned Episcopal church.

Up further is Jefferson Rock.

Still further up is Harper Cemetery.

We descended back into town, visited a few more shops, and took the shuttle back to our vehicle. Cell service was spotty so we couldn't use Google Maps but I had printed directions for the entire trip so we were able to find our way to the local Quality Inn. We checked in, showered, and had dinner at a local restaurant called Alstadts Ale House. The sandwiches were very good.

We returned to the hotel and rested our weary bodies.

Thursday August 7. The hotel's breakfast was pretty good considering that it was free. We went to nearby River & Trail Outfitters to go tubing at 10:00. It was a beautiful, mostly sunny, warm but not too warm day, and the water temperature was great. The journey down the Shenandoah River was about a mile and a half, and it took a little over an hour. Our ticket price included unlimited tubing, so we went a second time.

There were lots of damselflies, most of which were in tandem linkage.

We got done by 1:00, came back to the hotel to shower, and went to Wheatland Spring Farm + Brewery in Waterford VA, driving on nice country roads past farms and wineries. We arrived around 2:30. The 30-acre farm was established in 2018. It grows only enough grains to make a few of its beers, but it uses locally sourced grains for all of its others. It even makes a few farmhouse ales with its own wild yeasts. We sat outside in the biergarten because the lounge was closed due to the air conditioning being on the fritz. The farm has a kitchen. We got a buffalo chicken and a Cuban sandwich, both of which were great. I sampled the following beers:

• Clover Estate Lager (good) (made with the farm's barley)
• Farmers + Neighbors (good IPA)
• Streamline (good pale ale)
• Mediate (pretty good IPA)

We returned to the Quality Inn. Melissa took a walk while I napped. Then we went to Snallygaster's Café and Wine Bar for dinner. It had a nice homey atmosphere and the food was good.

Afterward we walked around a bit. We found a path in the woods and stopped in a cool bar called The Barn of Harpers Ferry. I should have taken photos but since we didn't order anything I didn't. We returned to the hotel to have a relaxing final night in Harpers Ferry.

Friday August 8. We had breakfast, left at 9:00, and drove upwards of 4 hours to the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum for a tour. The place was open to patients from October 1864 until May 1994. For a full history, click here.

Next we went to Stumptown Ales, which opened in 2023. We arrived at 3:45 and got some food. I sampled the following, all of which were pretty good:

• Bewildered Hippie (IPA)
• Six Legged Frog (IPA)
• Sassy Mojo (IIPA)

Then we visited Short Story Brewing at 4:50 and got more food. Like the previous place, all the beers were pretty good.

• Chasing Daylight (IPA)
• Infinity + 1 (IPA)
• Two For the Show (DIPA)
• Woke Up Like This (imperial coffee stout)

We drove to Pennsylvania and checked into the Wingate by Wyndham Uniontown a little after 6:00. Our suite was pretty nice for $87 including tax.

We stayed in and had a nice relaxing evening together.

Saturday August 9. We drove up to Melissa's uncle John's house near Pittsburgh. We hung out with him and his wife Debbie for a while. John likes good beer and always has lots of it. At 11:00 he opened a bottle of Het Anker Gouden Carolus Cuvée Van De Keizer Imperial Dark that he and I split (neither Melissa nor Debbie drink beer). At 11% ABV it got a buzz going.

Me, Debbie, Melissa, and John.

Melissa went to her mom's house while John drove me to some local beer places. First we went to House of 1000 Beers, a beer bar with 36 taps and hundreds of bottles and cans. John told me that it used to be owned by a friend of his, but since it was sold the number of beers has diminished. None of the draught beers that I ordered were very good, which made me wonder how diligent this place is about cleaning its beer lines.

• Lolev Rubico (IIPA) (meh)
• New Trail Waterfall (IIPA) (fairly good)
• Brew Gentlemen General Braddock's (IPA) (pretty good)
• New Trail Broken Kingdom (NEIPA) (fairly good)
• Westmalle Tripel (good) (bottle)
• Allagash White (good) (can)

Less than a mile away is Voodoo Brewery's New Kensington location. Voodoo has many locations, and this one, called the Ritz Taproom (because it used to be a Ritz theatre), is one of the independently owned places. We got there a little before 1:00 and sampled:

• Love Child (fairly good fruited triple)
• Where Our Secrets Go (pretty good imperial stout)
• Vivrant Thing (pretty good pale ale)
• Tröegs Peach Orangeade (good)

A stone's throw away is Strange Roots Experimental Ales. We arrived at 1:45 and tried:

• Mojito Seltzer (pretty good)
• Empty Ocean (good IPA)
• Pear and Honey (good BBA sour ale with pears and honey)

We then went to Melissa's mom's house to celebrate her mom's 80^th birthday. John and I shared a few Belgian beers so between those and what we had already consumed, the rest of the day was a blur for me. At dusk Melissa, John, and I went back to his house. He put us up in a nice little room in his basement.

Sunday August 10. We met several of Melissa's family members for brunch at Coast & Main.

Then we went back to John's to pack up, and headed home around 1:00. We stopped at Thick-n-Thin Brewing a little after 3:30. It opened in 2022. It's not a highly rated brewery but I'd never been there before and it was on the way home. It has several pour-your-own taps that run only on Fridays and Saturdays.

• Haze it to me (fairly good dank IPA)
• Trustfall (pretty good autumn ale with cinnamon, sugar, vanilla, and coffee)
• Year of the Snake (pretty good wild ale)
• Bearskin (pretty good stout)

At around 4:40 we arrived at RAK Brewing. It opened in 2023. The "RAK Yard", which has cornhole and darts, opened in April 2025.

• Kill em With Kindness (good double hazy IPA)
• Sacred Sword (pretty good hazy pale ale)
• Shaquille Oatmeal (good 10% ABV double oated IPA)
• Peach on the Green (pretty good peach sour)

We got home at 6:20. It had been a great trip.