I’m a big believer in “clement weather days”. It only makes sense. If there are a few days each year when the weather is just so bad that we get a day off, there should also be a day or two each year that are just too nice to work. I’m not a church-goer and this just seems like a really nice tip of the hat to the Great Engineer. A way to say “Thank you, God, for this day”.
We have a true fall here. This time of year we have spurts of summer where daytime temps can climb up into the upper eighties with nighttime temps in the sixties. But now we also get days that do good to get into the seventies with nighttime temps in the fifties. There are more “open window” days right now that not. As I write this, what was Hurricane Nate is churning its way up the Blue Ridge Mountains and it is gray and drizzly – the mountains are holding the heavy rain to the west. This past Friday was a perfect “clement weather day”.
We took full advantage of it by heading up to the Smith Mountain Lake area. We got there just as Moosie’s opened at 11:00 and walked around for a little while before lunch. Mango’s an open air grill and bar with a live music venue doesn’t open until noon.
Our plan had been to make it up to Beford to see the D-Day Memorial about twenty minutes away but it was such a beautiful day and we were enjoying Bridgewater Plaza so much, we didn’t want to get back in the car.
After lunching at Moosie’s, browsing through all of the shops, and feeding the fish, we took a walk down the boardwalk past Bridgewater Pointe, a condominium that sits next to the plaza.
I’d never noticed the boardwalk before so this was new for us. The sun was shining and warm and there was a refreshing, cool breeze off of the water. Boat slips whispered and creaked and moaned a little in the water.
As you reach the point where the boardwalk bends, you can see the mountain in the distance. It is just far enough away that the camera doesn’t really pick it up. It seems larger in real life.
A wary crane watched us pass and I wished that I had a long distance lens.
But I didn’t. We just enjoyed our view.
The boardwalk ends at the bridge that stretches over Smith Mountain Lake on its way to Moneta. It looks like they are doing some work there building either an extension to the current condos or additional parking. There is a pad site for sale for another condo project. I hope that we’ll still be able to walk on the boardwalk after this site is finished being “built out”.
There was no visible boat traffic as we walked down to the end of the boardwalk but that didn’t last long. As soon as we turned around to start back there were easily half a dozen boats appearing all at the same time. It truly was a beautiful day and a great day for the lake.
This is near the end of the season. The bartender at Mango’s said that they would close for the season by the end of the month. They’ll reopen sometime next March, when spring has returned as well.
For more information about this destination, please check out the following links:
