just spent an absolutely delightful weekend in fayetteville west virginia with my outdoor loving pal heather. we crammed in a bit of everything: rafting, hiking, coffee shops, dining, shopping, live music and sightseeing. we departed friday afternoon and drove up to our cozy airbnb right in downtown fayetteville. once we were checked in, we set […]
waterfalls
middle kid ADK epic hike.
it’s becoming a bit of a tradition on our family trips, that not only do we schedule a day for me to go on an epic adventure without the fam, but we also plan an extra long extra cool excursion for me and the annababy. for this vacations extra long extra cool adventure, we chose […]
stone mountain, from a new perspective.
in an effort to meet some local outdoorsy folk, and maybe learn about some cool local-ish hikes, i recently joined a local hiking group. it took a minute for my schedule to allow me to register for a group hike, but i was finally able to join them on a trip to stone mountain. as […]
mothers day weekend with the middle kid.
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 […]
spring break (in my late 40s).
my spring break at forsyth tech was a measly four days long and also did not coincide with the girls spring break from public school, so it seemed like another good time to make a dash into the wilderness, for a little solo, camping, hiking, rest, and recharge trip. since it was the first week […]
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 […]
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 […]
copper peninsula coastal tour
with everyone well rested, and the weather fully cooperating, it was a good day to take a drive along the coast of the copper peninsula, stopping for any and all landmarks, epic views, and cool or weird (or both) spots. first up. a roadside waterfall. then. the jam lady. this is filed under cool and […]
hocking hills state park.
for our 2024 summer road trip, we took a three week tour up to and around michigan, mostly in the upper peninsula, a part of the country that we haven’t seen yet. and we managed to find a few cool spots to check out on the way up. the first such location was hocking hills […]
end of fourth grade things.
as we rolled into may, the end of year school activities began to fill the calendar. it’s mayhem. especially for the crazelnut. firstly, her class had a field trip to hanging rock. obviously i went too. 🙂 the kids went to three different stations, where rangers talked to them about the rock cycle, water cycle, […]