Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival 2016

Last week we attended the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival in West Friendship, MD. Click here for the pictures. 

We decided to leave on Wednesday morning since my hubby didn’t want to drive all that way just for a 2 day festival. So, we left home about 7:30 and drove north. We took I85 to I77 and then caught the Blue Ridge Parkway at Fancy Gap. It was a beautiful drive and we stopped at the many overlooks. When we reached Roanoke, we had lunch at the Roanoker Restaurant which always has wonderful food. Then we returned to the parkway only to find out that we had to take a detour. The parkway was closed from a little north of Roanoke to Bedford, VA due to paving which was expected to be completed until September. About 4pm, I called the Comfort Inn in Waynesboro, VA to make a reservation ($79.99) because a lot of hotels were sold out for the James Madison University graduation.

On Thursday we had hoped to go to Harper’s Ferry and the C & O Canal but it was raining all day. Instead we headed to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center (Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport). I will post about it tomorrow so come back and read about our awesome visit there. We ended up at the Comfort Inn in Herndon, VA ($89) for the night.

We were going to get on a shuttle that would take us to a metro so we could go to DC today but due to the rainy weather, we changed our mind. We headed to Linthicum Heights where our hotel was – Hampton Inn ($98/night) but we were too early to check in. The Arundel Mill Mall was only about 5 miles away so we headed to the mall. We walked around the huge mall and had a great time. We also found a Chick-fil-a to have an early dinner before going to the hotel.  

We left the hotel at 7:15am on Saturday morning and got to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival by 8. I’m glad we wore our hiking boots because even though it didn’t rain, it was really muddy everywhere. The first place I went to was Miss Babs so I could get the special skein of yarn dedicated to this year’s festival. Then we walked around the vendors and met up with friends from NY. We had lunch with them before I went to the podcaster meet up at 1pm. Then we walked around some more and I bought lots of goodies. By 4pm, I was ready to go. We went back to the hotel and rested before going to Bob Evans for dinner and it was awful.

On Sunday we left the hotel at 7am so I could see the sheep to shawl competition. Then we watched the sheep shows before leaving around 10am for home. We got home about 7:30pm.

I’m so glad I went because we had a great time.

Things I Learned:

1.     Bring hiking boots always in case of mud!

2.     Next time, see how much hotels are in Frederick.

3.     Don’t eat at Bob Evans.

4.     Check gauge for yarn before bringing it as a project on a trip.

5.     Have back up plans in case of rain.

6.     Even though I could have bought a lot of these things on line, it was much more fun to touch and pick things out in person.

Original photo by Pat Hensley