Normal Latter-day Saint Family: From the Mountains to the Beach

While we've still been spending a lot of time at home, government restrictions are easing. Most stores and parks have opened. We're still supposed to be social distancing--staying six feet away from people. And lots of people wear masks. They are encouraged, but not required. Our family doesn't wear them when we're outside, but we do wear them in stores.

We've had so much fun with Brandon at home. He is such a smart and funny guy. We've enjoyed his humor, his insights in our gospel study, and the girls have liked that he's around to help with chores again. He had applied to a temp agency when his online classes finished, but he never heard back from them. So, when he heard that the climbing gym was re-opening in St. George, he was ready to get back on a plane ASAP.

Before he flew out, I wanted to squeeze in a couple of day trips. They were both SO FUN and I loved being out of the house and enjoying our BEAUTIFUL state.

First, we went to the mountains. We went up to the Blue Ridge Parkway. I had heard about a place called the Hebron Rock Colony. It is a collection of these huge boulders (mini-van sized, I heard) that are scattered in the mountains. I thought that sounded awesome and that the kids would like it. It was almost a three hour drive away. The views were gorgeous.

I had read online that the restrooms on the parkway were not open yet. So we stopped at the last gas station we could before the parkway... along with lots of other families, all of us with our masks on. It took forever. Then we were off to our trail.

It's a five mile loop, but my family said they weren't up

for hiking that long. I told them we could just hike as

long as we wanted and then turn around.

We found a gray hair on B-train.

Can you see it?

He thought that was pretty cool.

Ready to hike!

So fun to be back out in nature with my family.

And the weather was PERFECT.

This boy sees the world as a climbing problem...

Snuck in a little bouldering along the way.

Saw some cute wildflowers along the trail.

We got to hike next to a river, which is my favorite kind of hike.

We would stop every now and then to get our toes wet.

So pretty.

I accidentally took us on a short wrong turn.

Our trail intersected with the MST--Mountains to Sea Trail,

which is apparently 1200 MILES long... all in NC.

How is that possible?

I guess you start all the way at the TN border in the Great Smoky Mountains

and wind you way through the state all the way to the Outer Banks.

Interesting.

Luckily, it didn't take long for me to realize

we had taken a wrong turn and get us back

on the right path.

It is interesting to hike when you're trying to social distance.

Every time we crossed another family on the path,

we'd step off and let them pass.

It took SO LONG.

I think we went a mile and a half in a little over an hour.

After that hour and half, the family was ready to turn back.

I was sad that we didn't make it to the rock colony.

But I was outnumbered.

So we turned around and headed back to the van.

We stopped at one of the lookouts on the drive home.

Wow, the Parkway is just gorgeous.

On the drive home, we were reading through a Ken Jenning's

Trivia Almanac that I purchased years ago and it has just been

sitting on my shelf. It was such a fun way to entertain

ourselves in the car.

And we were home in time for dinner.

Fabulous day trip.

SECOND DAY TRIP:

The beach!

Brandon REALLY wanted to go to the beach before he went back to Utah. I was afraid the weather wasn't going to cooperate. We've had SO MUCH RAIN this month. But the forecast changed and we ended up having ANOTHER perfect little day trip. Andrew took the day off on Friday so we wouldn't have to fight Memorial Day crowds. We headed out to Wrightsville, where public parking had just opened up two days earlier.