Over spring break, my family and I decided to stay at a yurt in the mountains. I’m sure you are wondering what a yurt is – that was me when I first heard about them. A traditional yurt (from Turkic) or ger (Mongolian) is a portable, round tent covered with skins or felt used as a dwelling by nomads in the steppes of Central Asia.
Ours was not covered with skins or felt, but more of a plastic-like tent material and canvas. It was awesome!
It was very spacious for my family of 6, but small enough for great family bonding. The yurt was located on a self-sustaining farm on the side of the mountain, which we also toured during our stay.
The kids fed a baby goat and helped get eggs from the chicken coop. They weren’t super excited about seeing the bee hive, even though my husband and I were amazed at how much honey such a small colony can produce.
We hiked, we saw caverns, we went to downtown Charlottesville and ate great pizza with homemade ice cream for dessert… and we hiked some more. We saw a snake, some bugs, watched the flowers grow and pretended to be fierce bears.
We played Jenga, read books, ate more food and giggled a lot all while I had my camera. Capturing our everyday has been a huge challenge and so very rewarding. It was a great week. Lots of love and loads of adventure.
Story + photography contributed by Angela Douglas Ramsey
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