24 March, 2008
Mountain weekend

Ahh summer. So close, yet so far away. We had a little trip to Roanoke to visit Jimmy’s family and our first stop on Saturday was a swimming hole he loved as a kid. The water was just a little too cold for me to even wade in. Jimmy got his feet wet though.

Goose Creek. We’ll be back.

Goats by the roadside. We had a regular wildlife weekend, saw deer, a flock of wild turkeys, a (dead) fox, lots of cows, and I fed carrots to the neighbor’s horses.

  

I love the downtown Roanoke market. I got some more basil seeds at Agnew Seed, which is a very old, family-owned seed house. They had so many awesome heirloom seeds but I didn’t have much time to look around and I’m afraid I already have started too many seeds as it is so I restrained myself. We also bought a ton of handmade soap, we both are slightly addicted to the stuff.

We hit up the Mill Mountain Star, where I found a letterbox (and my first hitchhiker!), then took a little drive down the Blue Ridge Parkway and stopped at one of the overlooks after crossing this bridge. It ended up having three trails that ran below the overlook. One went below the bridge, one looped around the mountain and one was a steep climb down the rocks to the Roanoke River and Niagara Dam.

  

Someone had an easter egg hunt on the rocks, ha! Such a fun weekend. We visited with family and hid eggs for Jimmy’s younger cousins. They use plastic eggs and hide money and candy in them. They even hide one big egg with around $40 in it! Fun times.

01 March, 2008
False Cape State Park

I really can’t think of a better way to spend the first day of March than on a long hike with your boy and your dog.

  

False Cape State Park is a mile-wide barrier spit in Virginia Beach sandwiched between Back Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. It’s just past Sandbridge beach and butts up against the North Carolina line. You can’t access it except by boat or foot since the only way in is through Back Bay Wildlife Refuge, and no  vehicles are allowed in to preserve the wildlife and the ecosystem there.

In the winter the only way to get to the park is by foot, a four mile hike down the beach each way. The interior trails of Back Bay Wildlife Refuge are closed October through March. So off we went, with Kyla hot on the trail.

The beach was really lovely today, windy as always but the weather was quite nice and pretty warm. The difference in the ocean, sand and birds is striking just a few miles away from Sandbridge. With hardly any boaters and no pollution, the ocean took on this amazing navy blue-green that I’ve never seen around this area. We finally arrived at the Barbour Hill trailhead and headed up the dunes into False Cape.

After a little rest and some yummy lunch, we headed down toward the Back Bay boat dock where we ran into the assistant park manager (and her dogs!) who gave us some good tips about what to look for in the park and told us to head down the Barbour Hill Interpretive Trail for some interesting sights. She also educated us a little bit about camping there and the different measures they take to preserve the park and its wildlife.

Huge, old trees always fascinate me and this is the oldest live oak in the park.

  

We saw a lot of wildlife: ducks, geese, ospreys, red tailed hawks, a deer, and Jimmy and Kyla surprised a large black snake who lept several feet in the air to say hello!

I loved seeing these stripes of color over and over again. Note to self: pair navy blue and wheat together, it’s quite stunning. We ended up walking 13 miles today! I can now recommend Wrightsock double layer socks for half marathon walkers who want no blisters, haha! I can’t wait to go back and visit next month once the Back Bay trails open. We’re planning to take our bikes and camping gear and make a weekend of it; there is so much more to see!

25 February, 2008
Letterboxing

Welcome to my new, totally fun and somewhat nerdy hobby, letterboxing! Short summary in case you don’t want to read the FAQ. Letterboxing combines hand-carved stamps, treasure hunting and usually a scenic, outdoor place and a hike or walk. Each letterboxer has their own logbook and signature stamp. Each hidden letterbox also has a logbook and a stamp. Clues to the locations of the boxes are posted on the internet, and once you find the box, you stamp its logbook with your stamp and then stamp your logbook the stamp from the box. So you got to see a special location or go on a fun hike, and get a little art at the end of it!

Jimmy and I have decided to try to take a weekly nature walk or hike, with some camping thrown in when we can get away for the weekend, so I think this will complement it perfectly!

Sunday afternoon I set out with Mom, Dad, Maegan, Jimmy and Kyla to go find a few close to mom’s house. We stopped at the Flame of Hope monument in Virginia Beach, which I’ve driven by a zillion times but never stopped to look at. The box was hidden in a tree.

  

Everyone stamped in with their thumbprints and I used my stamp.

Then we headed over to Red Wing Park where three boxes were hidden on the nature trail. I’d never been into the woods back there. I think it’d be nice in spring.

One of the boxes was pretty hard to find, it was buried in the ground under some sticks. The other two were in tree roots. The three boxes were part of a series that someone had planted for their kid’s 5th birthday. It was neat to flip through the logbooks and see how many people had found them!

I let dad do the dirty work hah. I had such a good time. There are tons of letterboxes planted around this area, I’m going to try for a few finds every weekend. I’ve got four now! If you’re interested in learning more about letterboxing, check out Atlasquest (that’s the site I use) or Letterboxing.org. I can’t wait to plant a few in Norfolk, there are only a few in my city.

Any other letterboxers out there?

10 September, 2007
I’m Engaged!

Oh my goodness, what a weekend!!! Jimmy and I headed out to western Virginia for a little camping, we planned to stay at the Peaks of Otter a few nights and visit his family, maybe go take a dip in Panther Falls.

  

We got there late Friday night and set up camp. The campsite at the peaks is great. Each campsite has a smooth, graveled area bordered by rails for your tent, a picnic table, a cooking fire setup and posts for hanging lights. It’s $16 per night. There are also bathrooms not too far from the campsites.

  

Saturday morning we got up bright and early and headed over to the trails, where we planned to climb to the top of Sharp Top. The Sharp Top trail is marked as “strenuous” on the map, and they were NOT kidding. It’s 1.5 miles to the summit, which is 3,865 feet above sea level. It took us about an hour and 15 minutes to get all the way up.

The trip up was awesome! About halfway up, we rounded a huge boulder and Jimmy whispered, “STOP!” I froze, since more than one person had told us about how many bear are on the peaks. He pointed and I saw a deer about thirty feet in front of us. I started sneaking closer, hoping for a good picture. The deer just stared at me.

  

I got a little closer and then he just hopped right up the side of the hill, looked around and started walking right toward me. They are way bigger in person than I thought!

The deer came within about six feet of me before other people started coming from both directions on the trail. He wasn’t scared at all, I think they’re used to people feeding them (although he looked really hungry). He basically posed for pictures for every single person that came up the trail, and wasn’t going anywhere. We eventually moved on, still in awe that we got that close! I believe he’d have eaten right out of my hand if I’d attempted to feed him.

  

About 11:30 or so, we finally reached the top. I feel like I’m in pretty good shape and let me tell you that trail kicked my butt! I was exhausted and completely drenched in sweat, not to mention a little grimy from camping, no shower and still in the same clothes from the day before which I’d also slept in. Definitely not at my best, ha!

  

The view from the top was gorgeous. All around the summit were little medallions pointing out landmarks in the distance and how far they were from where you stood. It was amazing how small the lake and lodge looked from up there (that’s near where we started). Flat top, the highest of the three peaks, is on the other side of the lake.

It was a little hazy so we couldn’t see the town of Bedford (8 miles away), but we could see the various other landmarks pointed out, like Wheats Valley, and the third peak, Hearkening Hill.

  

We hung out for a while, it was pretty crowded up there with families who had rode the bus up (you can take a bus to just below the summit and hike the last 1500 feet to the top if you don’t want to climb the whole trail) and a huge troop of Boy Scouts who were being daring and getting stuck in rocks and all sorts of hilarious, boyish things.

  

It was getting pretty hot and we both were starving, but every time I suggested heading back down the trail, Jimmy wanted to stay a little while longer. I shrugged and said okay, I was having fun anyway.

We jumped up on top of the rock wall and climbed on to the highest rock, which isn’t connected to the platform. It was a little scary and Jimmy’s a little height-nervous so I was surprised he wanted to come up there with me at all. We looked out over a gorgeous mountain vista as peregrine falcons flew by, casting shadows on the trees below. It was truly breathtaking.

Next thing I knew I had a gorgeous ring on my finger and had told the man I love YES, that I’d love to spend the rest of my life with him. This is the sweetest surprise I’ve ever been given.

The fact that it was a surprise is perhaps the most shocking of all. Jimmy is terrible at keeping a secret. He always tells me my Christmas presents and finds out surprises before they happen. When he told me he’d had the ring almost a month, I about fell off the rock. He’d talked to my parents more than two weeks ago. All our mutual friends knew! I was the last to know, ha!

We stopped in the little cabin and I used a piece of charcoal from the fireplace to make our little mark.

The ring is gorgeous. He has such good taste. It’s a tension setting in white gold. I adore the details.

It catches the light beautifully. I’m so thankful for such a perfect weekend and beyond excited about this next stage of our life together. I love you Jimmy!

06 August, 2007
Panther Falls, Virginia

What a jam-packed weekend! Whew! Jimmy and I headed up to Panther Falls for some camping and swimming! He’d been there a couple times before with his friends, and this was my first time heading up. Panther Falls is a swimming hole near Natural Bridge and the city of Buena Vista, Virginia. We got a late start after work on Friday and didn’t get in til almost 1 a.m.

The camping there is not a campsite, it’s just…THE WOODS. I didn’t think I’d be into it but I loved it. We pitched the tent, Jimmy the boy scout made a fire and we caught this little guy trying to break into the tent. After a while we tried to get some sleep. Note to self: bring an air mattress or SOMETHING next time.

The next morning we hit up the grocery store in town and got some goodies to grill out before Jimmy’s dad came to meet us. Who says you can only eat hot dogs and smores in the woods? We made kabobs, grilled corn, veggie burgers and tomato sandwiches. Sooo good.

After we ate we headed down to the falls and got in some swimming. Sooooo fun! The water is freezing cold but felt really good, it was deathly hot outside.

There were tons of butterflies around both swimming holes we went to. I think they like to sit and drink on the rocks. It was awesome.

The crazy jumping boy talked me into swimming into a cave and popping up behind that waterfall (it only took me about 10 tries), but he could not talk me into jumping off that rock. Look at his crazy self.

The place is pretty popular and there were a lot of families there with kids and dogs. The little kids were like penguins, jumping in, swimming, jumping back in, swimming, all in a line.

There were plenty of waterfalls to slide down, which was a little scary but also extremely fun.

After a while, we headed over to another waterfall on Pedlar River Rd. This one was a really deep “holler” (ok I don’t know how else to describe it, sue me) and had waterfalls and pools that cascaded down two huge cliffs.

We took a really steep trail down through the woods and I got stung by a bee (fun!) but we finally made it to the bottom of the holler. Jimmy slid down some dangerous-looking waterfalls and then we climbed back up to meet his dad at the top.

Two people showed up with their little kid and a dog which promptly slid right off a rock and fell pretty far. We could hear the dog screaming, I guess he got stuck for a minute. But then he climbed back up and seemed to be fine. It’s definitely not a place for kids or dogs, Panther Falls is fine for that but this one was more dangerous.

After we had enough sun and freezing water, we headed to Jimmy’s mom’s house and hung out with this crackhead. His name is Chase and he never EVER stops snorting.

On the way home, we took a little detour to grab some lunch at the Pink Cadillac Diner in Lexington. We’d been there once before when we headed up to Natural Bridge and it was so fun to go back.

Big gorilla & little gorilla.

It’s a fun little place. The walls are covered in vintage ads, records and posters and there are several vintage jukeboxes and soda machines around the restaurant.

I had some fried cauliflower and a baked potato. Yum. We zipped home just in time for the Art & Craft Swap Meet. What an exhausting weekend. The house is trashed and there’s lots to do after work today! Back to normal life!

06 November, 2006
Almost done!

Well Saturday I went and got tattooed again. 3 more hours under my belt. I’m 2/3 of the way done now. All the shading is done, and most of the color. Next time we just have some background, the keys, the banner and the roses. Should be about 2 more hours. I know ya’ll want to see pictures, but I decided not to post any til it’s finished and healed. So you have to wait.

Everyone who said getting shaded/colored was easier than getting outlined, you’re right but then again you’re liars. The pain is a little less, but it’s much more surface area so it was pretty miserable. I cried like three times. I’m a big baby. I hate getting tattooed, ugh.

After I was done, Jimmy and I drove up to Roanoke to visit his family. The fall colors are just beautiful up there. This is right outside his parents’ front door.

His family had a big dinner when we got there and we got to visit with everyone. His little cousin is a trip and a half.

Yesterday we went to the Peaks of Otter with Jimmy’s dad & his girlfriend. I thought we were gonna hike up but we ended up just shivering by the lake and went to eat at the Lodge.

Oh yeah, and Jimmy walked on water.

On the way back to drop off his dad, we stopped at an apple orchard store and Jimmy bought me a bunch of apples (soooo good!), apple butter, pinto beans, yellow eyed peas and fresh tomatoes. He also bought an apple pie, which is sitting in my fridge calling my name. I’m gonna try to not eat the entire thing tonight while he’s at work haha.

I miss my dog! I am picking her up this afternoon from mom’s.