A museum devoted to hounds, a stalactite organ, an 18th-century version of today's Jacuzzi, a stuffed horse, and a cruise to Elizabethan times all make for unusual travel in Virginia.
Chimes Down Under (Luray): One of the most fascinating caverns in the Shenandoah Valley is at Luray. Through huge subterranean rooms comes beautiful music -- in the form of hammers striking million-year-old stalactites.
Ancient Hot Tubs (Warm Springs): Eighteenth-century travelers couldn't climb into the Jacuzzi after a rough day on the road -- unless, that is, they pulled into Warm Springs. Since 1761, travelers have slipped their weary bodies into these natural rock pools whose waters range from 94°F to 104°F (34°C-40°C). You can, too.
Mounting Little Sorrel (Lexington): After he died of wounds accidentally inflicted by his own men at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Gen. Stonewall Jackson was buried in Lexington, where he had taught at Virginia Military Institute. Thanks to taxidermy, Jackson's war-horse, Little Sorrel, stands in VMI's museum. Robert E. Lee's horse, Traveller, is buried just outside Lee Chapel, his master's resting place.
Splashing with Harbor Seals (Virginia Beach): Children and adults will love the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center's Harbor Seal Splash. Accompanied by an animal care specialist, you get into a pool and splash around with the resident harbor seals and participate in a training session.
Hoi Toide Tonoit (Tangier Island): Out in the Chesapeake Bay sits remote Tangier Island, whose residents have been so isolated that they still speak with the Elizabethan brogue of their forebears. Out here, "high tide tonight" is pronounced hoi toide tonoit -- as in "hoity-toity" -- and narrow 17th-century lanes barely can accommodate modern automobiles. Cruises leave from the Northern Neck and the Eastern Shore.
