despite having moved to north carolina for 20 years ago, and then having traveled the usa seeking adventure for over three years, we haven’t actually ever done much adventuring in the wilderness just down the road. so, when we decided to camp in lenoir, we were pretty excited to check things out, even if everywhere […]
hiking
batavia, during quarantine.

as previously mentioned, in my letchworth post, a couple of weeks ago, the lidkids and i loaded up to head to batavia, to visit my mom, and break up the monotony of the quarantine. the drive was remarkably uneventful. we stopped twice. both time with little fanfare. and there was no traffic and smooth sailing. […]
letchworth state park.

last week-ish, the kids and i loaded up and headed to western ny to visit fam and have a little change of scenery. my mom was able to take a few days off work, and on one particularly lovely day, we drove out to letchworth state park to “hike” and be in the sunshine and […]
escape to hanging rock.

our trip to pilot mountain was just the jumpstart we needed to start getting out and about and hiking a bit more. so, later in the week, we packed up again, and this time headed to hanging rock state park. (ruby barfed on the way up, if you were wondering). our plan was to hike […]
escape to pilot mountain.

early in may, north carolina began phase one of “reopening” and part of that was state parks opening in various capacities. since it happened on a friday evening, we had no plans to venture out on that weekend with the masses of crazy people who had been cooped up for so long. then, it started […]
everglades and fruit stand detour.

when we were planning this florida trip, we knew we wanted to revisit the everglades. but, this time, with ruby in tow, it was a little more complicated. the campgrounds don’t have hookups, and she’s not allowed on any trails, so we would have to leave her inside, with no a/c, which could be a […]
some november field trips.

one day, we were at the library, picking out books, looking up books to put on hold, guessing the number of pieces in the candy jar, when our friendly librarian told us that someone had just returned the library’s pass to the local science museum. we jumped at the chance to check it out for […]
forty three.

in november, i turned 43. sounds very old when i say it out loud or see it in writing. like a grownup, even. anyhooooo. the derek and the kids kicked off my birthday morning but going out and picking up a starbucks peppermint mocha and bagel station salt bagels and chive cream cheese. so good. […]
shenendoah national park.part two.

our second full day in shenendoah was beautiful. unfortunately, so overnight wind and rain had knocked a LOT of leaves off the trees. there was a distinct difference in fall foliage between the two days. on tap for the day was a short little hike that derek discovered that took us up to bearfence mountain. […]
shenendoah national park.part one.

we didn’t have much time after our giant acadia adventure before we would head back out into the wild. our second trip in october was to shenendoah national park, which isn’t all that far from our house (4-5 hours), but we have actually never been. we arrived in the afternoon, scoped the visitor center, checked […]