a few weeks before mother’s day, unsure of what i wanted to do to celebrate myself (and the birthing of three children), i was poking around some state parks to see what camping options were available. much to my surprise, gorges state park had one last campsite opening, so i snagged the reservation, not really […]
north carolina
yet another escape to stone mountain…
a few days back, it was “cardio day” on my workout routine, so i packed my standard cardio items to go to the gym after i dropped off the girls at school. then, on a whim, i grabbed some bare minimum hiking essentials also. i literally had no idea which activity i planned to do, […]
impromptu to boone. (mostly a tale about another solo hike).
in an attempt to spice up our life a little, and not sit around all weekend in this stupid house, we made a semi-spontaneous decision to head to boone with the fam. and then we also made the decision to have me go up a day early to have some alone time without the fam. […]
another stone mountain escapade
after a busy holiday season and then a stupidly snowy january, when the first day of sunshine rolled around (with the kiddos sitting in their desks at school), i hopped in the car and headed to the mountains. stone mountain is a favorite local hike, and it had been closed for a bit of time […]
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, […]
summer beach trip. anna and derek go fishing.
ok. so, just like derek always plans a day for me to go for an epic side quest hike or adventure when we are on trips more conducive to such activities, when we are near large bodies of water, derek plans an epic side quest fishing trip (epic for him, not me). on this trip, […]
hanging rock with ruby dooby.
one spring day, the stars perfectly aligned, and my day off from all responsibilities coincided with a day of beautiful weather, and i really had no choice but to oad up the world’s best dog and ride up to hanging rock to hit the trail. we opted for the moore’s knob loop, taking the counterclockwise […]
spring break 2023the longest hardest hike.
as has become standard over the years, we planned for one of the days of our spring break trip to be a big fat longer hike for me (and a much needed day of doing nothing for my people who enjoy doing nothing and derek who was a little under the weather for the whole […]
spring break 2023bryson city day.
our second day of spring break was a little drizzly and overcast, so we figured it was a good day to do some shopping and exploring in bryson city. you know, making sure we were close to shelter. but before we hit the city, we drove up “the road to nowhere” to walk through the […]
spring break 2023. wesser bald fire tower hike.
for our first big spring break adventure, we dragged the kids out on a three-ish mile hike to the wesser bald fire tower. it was relatively uneventful. derek wasn’t feeling great and ike was nursing a sprained ankle, so they took their time, while i forged ahead with the girls. we started out a little […]