Liz’s Birthday 2023, Day 5: Copper Fox Distillery, Dinner and Ice Cream in Front Royal, Driving Through Shenandoah National Park at Night

April 26, 2023

Despite the late night illness last night, Liz was up fairly early. We had looked into a nearby distillery, and discussed going on one of their tours (11AM)… but I figured this was out, given how Liz was sick overnight.

But come 9:30 AM, she was up and ready. And we started to scramble, to try to get breakfast and make our way to the distillery (which was around 30 minutes away).

Once more, we got some breakfast sandwiches at Gathering Grounds. Nearby, I spotted this fantastic Venn Diagram.

A slight change: we stopped in to Broad Porch Coffee, prior to heading out.

At Copper Fox Distillery, in Sperryville.

We got here just in time. Because the roads are pretty curvy on the way here (driving through Shenandoah slightly), I ended up scarfing my breakfast down in the parking lot.

Outside the main doors, waiting.

We were the first visitors, and milled about as the staff got ready for our tour. It was just us, so it made for a nice “private” tour of the place.

Peeking in to the store.

There was a small train, along with a substantial amount of track between several of the rooms. I didn’t get to ask whether this worked/ran (though secretly, I hoped it did).

Of note: the owner, Rick Wasmund, interned at Bowmore. And he carries on the same tradition of floor malting at Copper Fox. On researching this distillery, I was reminded of our trip to Islay.

I cannot tell you how amazing this room (and all the rooms, honestly) smelled. Note the statue and painting, honoring the Angels’ Share.

Outside, there were several tables along the nearby river.

We got two flights, to taste. Liz does not look like someone who was struggling with nausea, less than 12 hours ago.

A view of a nearby building, on our way out.

There was an adjoining antique store… but it was closed today. This would end up being a bit of a theme this week, as a lot of stores/shops have shorter, limited hours than what I imagined.

Someone pulled this sign out, after we left. I’m not sure why it’s needed, but we felt it was funny to see.

Back at the hotel, we spent a lot of time just lazing around again and watching Star Trek on TV. I think that yesterday’s hike, and the late night illness had taken a toll… and we just mostly rested up on the couch.

It was relaxing and, in a lot of ways, necessary.

For dinner, we drove up to Front Royal. The northernmost entrance to Shenandoah is near this town… and I saw that it had a very quaint looking downtown area, which would be fun to explore.

Unfortunately, I didn’t research enough. Our dinner reservation was at Element, at 7PM. We arrived a bit early, and my hopes were that we would walk around a bit.

Turns out – all the other shops nearby closed at 5PM. So there was no walking or looking around. We just got to the restaurant really, really early. With nothing else to do.

One place that was open: C&C Frozen Treats. On walking in, we were greeted by the owner, who was incredibly enthusiastic.

He asked us what we were up to, and when we told him about our dinner… he asked what each of us had. He then immediately went about pairing potential ice cream flavors for us. It was awesome.

We both had 2-3 samples in our hands, before we even knew what was happening. And we ended up getting two scoops each.

We hung out on the bench outside, but with the sun setting… we ended up retreating to the car, to finish our dessert.

A lot of cool buildings in Front Royal. Really wish things had been open, so we could have explored the downtown a bit more.

On our way home, we had two options: drive back to the hotel quickly, or take an extra 30-45 minutes and drive through Shenandoah at night. We debated some, and decided to take the longer route through Shenandoah.

Interestingly, there was no one at the entrance/booth. So in some ways, this was a honor system thing in terms of getting access to the park.

The roads were very dark and windy, and I ended up going fairly slowly. But for the most part, we were on our own the whole way through.

We both surprised one another.

Overall, we saw a ton of deer on our way home. I lost count, but I would say we easily saw 20+ deer over the course of our hour-long drive from Front Royal to Thornton Gap.

Back at the hotel, visiting the main room to make our plans for tomorrow. Spotted this horrible setup, and just unclear why someone would do something like this.