let’s seeee here. it’s february as i’m typing this. i have a lot of fond memories of the month of october. a few bittersweet. but mostly fond. i guess that’s the whole idea of the sweet in the bittersweet, though. anywayyyyzzzz… let me kick things off with an update about school. i wrapped up the […]
hiking
whirlwind visit with the jacksons.

in late october, we had a surprise and very whirlwind visit from our road life friends, the jacksons, when they found themselves with some extra time while passing through the area on a long stretch of travel from the northeast to florida. i had already made plans to take a hike to hanging rock that […]
fall break recharge.

so, these days, community college operates on 8-week mini-semesters. i sort of got an explanation about why things are trending that way from derek’s sister who teaches at forsyth tech, but i’m not sure i agree with the reasoning. it’s pretty intense to cram an entire class into 8 weeks, and i definitely felt like […]
labor day hanging rock hike.

i managed to drag two of the other four members of my immediate nuclear family out to hanging rock on a beautiful (slightly warm) labor day for a little hike up to moore’s knob. (we actually made the decision to do the lesser traveled moore’s knob trail instead of hiking to hanging hanging rock when, […]
less exciting random U.P. adventures…

this is the post where i group together some of the less epic things we did while at the keweenaw peninsula. and our travel day. we were trying hard to fill the days but also not make everyone crazy. its a delicate balance for sure. on our second day in the area, i was able […]
local waterfalls and an epic toy store.

full disclosure. at this point in our trip, we were struggling a bit. the upper peninsula wasn’t as epic as we thought it would be. everyone was sort of over it. but. we had some cool things scheduled that couldn’t be moved, so there was nothing to do but stick it out. derek did a […]
the porkies and me.

on these long summer road trips, derek usually has to work a few days here and there. on one such day, a beautiful one at that, we determined that it would be a good day for me to embark on a solo adventure, leaving him to work, and the kids to have a lazy day […]
a day in marquette

we capped off our first week’s stay in the upper peninsula with a day in the college town of marquette. technically, we had already been there, thanks to a rainy first day in town that saw us hit up the movies and do a little shopping. but, on this day, we had a few outdoor […]
pictured rocks, the hiking views.

as you probably know, if you’ve followed our little family story until now, whenever we go on a long vacation, derek is always sure to work in a day or two for me to go on a bigger, longer adventure, usually a hike. sometimes anna comes with me. sometimes not. on this occasion, she somewhat […]
hiking and exploring the U.P.

after our sea kayaking adventure, we took the posse inland, for a bit of hiking, waterfall peeping, and general tourism. i think we were still technically on national park service land, but it was all mixed in with little towns and such. and if i’m remembering this day correctly, there were some closures that prevented […]