A Pandemic Getaway

Airbnb Getaway in West Virginia

If there was no pandemic, we would currently be in San Diego for our twelfth consecutive Comic-Con. Alas, SDCC was (rightfully) canceled. Even if the con hadn’t been nixed, I wouldn’t have been at all comfortable attending, with the pandemic still wreaking havoc. So in lieu of our annual nerd vacation, John and I booked a few nights at an Airbnb in a remote location in West Virginia, where we could bring all of our own food and not go out to eat or come into contact with others.

MONDAY

The Airbnb was supposed to be a two hour and fifteen minute drive from our home in Washington DC. It took us longer to get there than expected, because when we were about 10 minutes away, we lost internet service and Google Maps stopped working. If we were in a horror movie, this would have been the first indication that things were going sideways.  😛  Now we know to look up turn-by-turn directions and screen shot them in advance (or go old school and bring a map)! We ended up driving a bit out of the way but managed to get some service back and navigate our way to the place. PHEW! We did not want to have to stop somewhere and ask for directions.

Our rental home was super cute, a new-ish log cabin style place with three bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms. The home had high ceilings and a gas fireplace in the living room:

There was also a fire pit, a deck with a hot tub out front, a grill in the back, and a garage with some gym equipment and games:

Our host left us a bottle of Garganega from Veneto, one place we visited on our honeymoon in Italy. Fate! The wine was a very nice touch, and it was delicious.

There were cute details inside, and each bedroom had a location theme (the master was Texas, one upstairs bedroom was Washington DC, and the other was Istanbul).

The house is situated atop a hill with beautiful, sweeping views of the area:

As soon as we arrived, I went to work disinfecting all the high-touch surfaces in the house while John unloaded the car. The house had clearly been cleaned, but I needed to disinfect on my own for peace of mind. We were hungry by the time we arrived, so once we unpacked the food, we fired up the grill and enjoyed a nice dinner with wine. After dinner, we sat on the deck and watched the gorgeous sunset:

We also kept our eyes peeled for the NEOWISE comet, which won’t be seen for another 6,800 years! We weren’t able to see it because of some cloud cover, but we could see a lot more stars than we can see from DC. I’m amazed that my iPhone 11 is able to capture stars…not that my photos would win any awards, but it’s still pretty cool:

TUESDAY

After breakfast, we took a walk around the property to get some exercise, and then we spent the day chilling in the house. I played some Animal Crossing out on the deck, napped, and relaxed. A thunderstorm rolled in in the afternoon, which was cool to witness heading our way:

Also…I just noticed a large green orb in this photo that I took post-storm, once the sun came out. I think we definitely missed a major paranormal sighting (LOL JK):

We grilled again for dinner, and afterward we played a game of Life, which we found in a cabinet full of games inside the house. Around sunset, a mist came in over the hills that was simultaneously spooky and pretty:

Later on, the sky cleared up enough for NEOWISE to become visible! I managed to capture some photos of it! We were THRILLED to be able to see the comet. You can spot it underneath the Big Dipper, heading downward. It’s the bright star-looking thing with a tail:

WEDNESDAY

There was a ton of mist outside when I got up in the morning:

To get some exercise, I went for a walk up and down the long, hilly driveway, and John went for a run.

We really didn’t have any grand plans for the trip other than to escape the city for a few days and enjoy some beautiful scenery away from people. I spent the morning visiting a friend’s island on Animal Crossing. In the afternoon we had a massive thunderstorm, which was, again, so lovely to listen to.

For dinner, I had DiGiorno pizza (always a treat!) and John cooked his remaining burgers. I did some online Comic-Con shopping to help support vendors, and we played a couple games of Uno.

At 8pm, Funko put their SDCC 2020 exclusives up for sale, so right at the appointed time I went to buy three Pops. Their system was wonky, though, and it took more than an hour to end up completing my order! One of the Pops I wanted, Mewtwo, was sold out by the time I was able to place my order. But I did manage to get Ron Burgundy and Brick Tamland, which were the ones I really wanted! Score! I guess even Comic-Con @ Home can still provide us with a stressful experience.  😛

Once the Funko stress was out of the way, John built a fire in the fire pit in the front yard. We sat out there with some wine and stargazed and chatted as the mist rolled up the hill and over us (so creepy). Because of the mist and clouds, we weren’t able to see NEOWISE again. It’s okay, I’m glad we managed to spot it the night before!

THURSDAY

In the morning we did some safe exploring by going for a 45 minute drive in a loop around the area.

We saw so many deer along the way, including a couple young Bambis with white spots! I didn’t manage to get a pic of them, unfortunately.

We spent the day chilling in the house again, and another big thunderstorm blew through in the afternoon. It was amazing to watch this wall of rain coming directly at us!

My brother’s birthday is the 23rd, so I called him and we chatted for awhile. I played some more Animal Crossing and did more SDCC vendor browsing. I had the rest of the DiGiorno for dinner and John grilled hot dogs. That night while John soaked in the hot tub, I stayed indoors and watched a couple SDCC panels, Superstore and The Boys, both of which were a whole lot of fun!

It’s obviously not even close to being the same as seeing panels in person, but it’s also pretty great not to have to wait in line for hours to get into a panel!

FRIDAY

The next morning was our last, so we got up, ate breakfast, packed, cleaned, and hit the road. Because of the experience of getting lost on our drive to the Airbnb, we screenshotted turn-by-turn driving directions while we still had Wi-Fi access at the house. And it’s fortunate we did so, because neither of us had phone service for probably close to an hour into our drive back!

We made it home without incident and were happy to have managed a pandemic getaway where we didn’t have to interact with a single person. We loved the Airbnb and would definitely book there again. I’m very grateful we had the opportunity to take this mini vacation!