our next stop on our epic (not so)post pandemic summer road trip was the greater minneapolis-saint paul metropolis, where we had four days booked, with big plans to do lots of things. but, on our way in, some of the same brake issues from the way out of chicago resurfaced, so we would end up […]
waterfalls
my solo camping trip to hanging rock
One day, not so long ago, I determined that I needed a little me time, so I booked a couple of nights at Hanging Rock State Park. I packed up the tent, my new camping love seat, and a hammock that Derek surprised me with for early mother’s day. Also some food and camping supplies, […]
linville falls.
derek didn’t have as much time off during our time in the lenoir and linville area, so i took a few solo trips with the kiddos. one such adventure was to linville falls. this is also a pretty heavily trafficked area, but we went on a weekday and took a more difficult trail than most […]
fall at crabtree falls.
after our trip to the outer banks, we had a one day layover at home, doing laundry and switching out wardrobes, before heading to lenoir for a few days in the mountains. it was peak leaf season, so we wanted to see some beautiful fall color, but we also wanted to balance that with other […]
three waterfalls hike.gsmnp.
for our final adventure on this trip to the smokies, we drove out and around to the bryson city entrance, for a nature and waterfall themed hike that derek found in a kid friendly hiking book he picked up at the visitor center. the three waterfalls hike is a loop made up of several other […]
the chimney tops. (almost).great smoky mountain national park.
once we moved to the north carolina side of the park, to smokemont campground, we had a long deliberation about what hikes we wanted to do. we had to take into account the length, elevation, danger, our kids level of motivation, weather. all the things. eventually we decided on the chimneys hike. it’s not super […]
abrams falls hike.great smoky mountain national park.
originally, we had planned to lay low on our first day, a sunday, in the smokies. even though we were still in the midst of a pandemic, great smoky mountain national park is the most visited park in the us, especially on a weekend at the more heavily trafficked spots. but then. the weather was […]
waterfalls with snp and max.
it’s been like 900° for the last few weeks, here in north carolina. so when i was making plans to hang with my high school bff sarah powers and her kiddo max, and the option to meet at the lower cascade falls at hanging rock came up, it was a no brainer. i mean, this […]
social distancing at stone mountain.
back back back, before we went on the road, when isaac was in school, and we found out he got into the HAG (nerd) program and would be changing schools, we became friends with another family who were in the same boat. j and isaac were in the same class that next year, and her […]
upper creek falls. (linville gorge wilderness)
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 […]