outdoors

  • hikes,  mom,  outdoors,  travel

    Weekend: Key Ingredients to My Perfect Weekend

    There are Sunday nights where I just exhale a soft sigh of happiness and contentment for having had a wonderful weekend. Today I am sharing which things I consider key to having a satisfying fulfilling weekend. Of course, this will look different for each person as we all have different likes and dislikes, families and schedules. Saturday Morning Run For the past few weeks, I have been running with a group of ladies (in their 40s to 60s) for 6 miles at 6 AM. It is an easy pace, we do different routes and we get to see the sunrise! It’s a great way to start the weekend! Breakfast and…

  • hikes,  outdoors,  travel

    Grandfather Mountain, NC

    The week after Christmas we took a short vacation in North Carolina and per usual planned some outdoor adventures. First on the agenda was snow tubing which was really fun despite the warm winter and it not being natural snow. Next was a hike at Linville Gorge (see post here). On our 2nd day we visited Grandfather Mountain. All of these places were chosen from my internet search for things to do near Morganton, NC where we had booked our hotel. The day was windy and a little windy but not especially too cold. After being unprepared for one hike in the fall. I now keep extra windbreakers and hats…

  • hikes,  outdoors,  travel

    Linville Gorge and Falls, NC

    We took a short vacation after Christmas in search of snow. Well, snow we did not find however we did enjoy a half day of snow tube in North Carolina on some fake snow! We booked our couple hours of fun at Jonas Ridge Snow tubing and had a ball. Since it was a warm week, I knew it would be pleasant to hike to I looked up a few places near where we were staying (Morganton, NC) so we could enjoy the outdoors. It was fairly busy everywhere we went as others had the same idea but we were still able to enjoy our surroundings and fresh air. Linville…

  • outdoors,  travel

    Sunsets on the Beach

    I will let the pictures speak for themselves for this post. While pretty, the sunsets were not as majestic as last year. Having more clouds in the sky does make for more striking sunsets. I did enjoy these but didn’t always wait till the sun dip under the horizon before heading back to the condo. The time zone being Central time and it being fall, the sun started setting each afternoon around 4:30! We arrived too late the first day to see the sunset so this was day two. Peaceful and pretty! I took this picture from the top of the stairs (it was a steep way down) and thought…

  • outdoors,  travel

    Sunrises at the Beach: the Beauty of the Golf

    We have been to beaches in a number of places and countries (but no tropical island) and I have found that the Gulf of Mexico has some of the prettiest beach I have seen so far. I haven’t been to Hawaii nor the coast up North but we have been to California (around Malibu and Santa Monica), Long Island, the Atlantic Ocean by St. Augustine in Florida, the Mediterarneen in France and Italy and Spain. So far, the only the most comparable and might I say more beautiful in my eyes maybe was the Costa Brava in Spain. All this to say, that we love the gulf! The sand is…

  • outdoors,  travel

    Our Stay at the Beach: The Adagio

    For the 4th year in a row, we spent Thanksgiving at the beach and for the 2nd year, we stayed at the Adagio condos in Blue Mountain/Santa Rosa Beach on 30A. I will be sharing a few posts about our stay and the beautiful sunsets and sunrises but today I just wanted to share an overview of our vacation. First of all, yes, we leave all of the extended family on their own for Thanksgiving (my parents usually will celebrate with my brother) and the in laws come over to our house to visit my mother in law and head to the beach with just the kids. I didn’t grow…

  • outdoors,  travel

    Can it get any prettier?! Cotton Fields at Sunset Take 2

    Last week, before the time change, my teen and I decided to take a quick walk down the hill to our neighborhood. As we were going down we noticed that the sun was going to set fairly soon so we decided to cross the street and bridge and run to the park with the cotton field where I took pictures a couple of weeks ago. And it did not disappoint. Since everyone enjoyed the pictures last time, I think you will love these even more. The timing was perfect! Unbeknownst to us, though my 7 year old got sick at the house while we were enjoying these views and with…

  • outdoors,  travel

    Evening Walk: Cotton and Sunset

    I finally managed to take a walk before the sunset by the cotton fields. The fields finally bloomed (much later this year) and I pass them everyday wanting to capture some of the beauty. The fields look really cool when it is foggy, at sunset and early morning. It really looks like snow from afar. I am grateful everyday for where we live and how we get a touch of country life as we drive to school. I saw one of my friends walking ahead with her puppy (not so little doberman) and her neighbor so I jogged and joined them on their walk. It was fun to see how…

  • hikes,  outdoors,  travel

    Another Sunday, Another hike

    As I have mentioned before on the blog, we have several really pretty places to hike in a 15 minute radius from our house. These trails are really handy if we want to hike on a Sunday afternoon since we have less time to drive somewhere after church and before dinner. I have shared this particular hike before here but found some different pretty little nature treasure to share this go around. The hike starts near this old furnace and is just a little over 1 mile long one way. You can hike through the woods or take a shorter road up. I like this hike because it borders a…

  • outdoors,  travel

    A Visit to Carlton Farms, GA: Fall Fun

    On the way to my parents, we pass this farm. Finally after 3 years of passing it by we planned a few hours of fun this fall. The first thing that caught my eye when driving by was the sunflower field so I looked up the activities there online since I saw a sign for a corn maze. After reading all of the activities offered, I didn’t even have to convince the children to come, they all wanted to join in the fun. We did not get any pumpkins but I couldn’t help but take a picture of this wagon full of white pumpkins: there is something so classy about…