Blog — "outdoors"

This past Thursday was Andrew's birthday. For his birthday this year, he wanted to go camping. On Friday evening we set out to drive a couple hours out to Rocky Gap State Park near Cumberland. A two hour drive turned into three after nearly running out of gas and then aimlessly driving around in the dark trying to find the campground. And that is all you need to know. We shall never speak of such gas incident and driving around in the dark incident again.

Regardless, we arrived at our campsite around 10pm, had to set up in the dark, and proceeded to make a fire so that we could eat some food, drink a clandestine beer (alcohol is banned in the state parks, but we like to be sneaky), and then go to bed. Lilah may or may not have decided that she was going to curl up all 75 pounds of her in between my knees. Yes, that dog is amazing. And by amazing, I mean a jerk. Not really. Well, at least not most of the time.


Saturday morning involved dutch oven egg bake making and lots of delicious French press coffee. After our ridiculously huge breakfast, we set out on a five mile hike around Lake Habeeb. It was a gorgeous trail with plenty of little spots for us to stop and let Lilah swim. Hiking and swimming all day long? Lilah was on cloud nine.







After our long afternoon, we returned to our campsite for some chips and salsa and more clandestine beer. See how sneaky Andrew was being?
 And since this camping trip was only a weekend long, a lot of it revolved around food since we weren't out and about as much as we usually are on bigger trips. So for dinner, we made the most delicious chicken enchiladas ever in our dutch oven. Yum.



We woke up to rain on Sunday morning, so quickly made a pancake and bacon breakfast and then packed our things up to head back home. Despite it being a quick trip, it was great to be able to relax and not have any obligations. Phones were turned off because there was no reception anyway. House projects were put on hold. No errands needed to be run. We could do whatever we wanted to do in the moment. And the best part about today? Lilah has been passed out sleeping in the living room all day. Not a peep. :)

How was your weekend? Did you do anything adventurous?

On the weekends when the weather is warm, we often try to escape Baltimore for at least one day to enjoy a day of hiking. We pack our Camelbacks with water, granola bars, and of course a camera. This weekend we went to Susquehanna State Park near Havre de Grace, which is located in the Susquehanna River valley.

On our way, we drove through rain showers that were less than promising for a day outside, but upon our arrival, the weather improved and we were able to get lost in the woods for a few hours amongst the beautiful and lush plant life. We were also able to see some wildlife-- a snake that nearly slithered by my foot, leaving me jumping away in shrieks (snakes are that one thing I just can't stand!) and a baby deer staring us down on our trail while the mother stood nearby (you can spot the baby in one of the photos if you look closely!).

After our hike, we made a few pit stops amongst some historic mill buildings and in a small park in Havre de Grace that had beautiful views along the Susquehanna River and out into the Chesapeake Bay.


I've been trying to take the weekends off recently since I have much more time to get things done during the week. It hasn't been easy. I spent all day Saturday working on a new line of products that will be coming to the shop soon, but then I forced myself to take off Sunday. Getting out of Batimore made Sunday even more enjoyable.

How was your weekend? Did you go on any adventures out and about?

Sick of my weekend hiking photos yet? These were just magical and I had to share. They're a week old from a fabulous day in Gunpowder Falls State Park on Memorial Day, but sadly I've been so busy that I was unable to even take a look at them until now. As of late, hiking has been the perfect get-out-of-the-house-and-forget-about-the-rest-of-the-world activity that I've been greatly in need of as the chaos of the end of the school year quickly consumes my life.

Despite the horribly hot and humid conditions last weekend (which was also the weekend our central air decided it had leaked all of its freon) we decided to get away for the afternoon. Lucky we did because the light conditions were just perfect for photography at the time we went! Aside from the beautiful outdoors there are a few spots of interest as well including a covered bridge and old buildings from a historic mill.


I love living in a city, but I have also found that there is a necessary balance that I need to find between the city and our natural world. We are lucky to have so many places surrounding Baltimore to enjoy.

How do you escape the daily grind of life?

It's been a while since I've written about any of our house updates. To be honest, life has taken over and this past month has not been focused on The Year of the House in any way. The weather has been beautiful and so there have been baseball games to go to, hikes to take in the parks, walks to go on with Lilah, and outdoor cafe tables to sit at. The last time I even mentioned anything about our house, I wrote about painting our bedroom. And despite our determination to get that job finished, I am sure you can guess how that turned out.

With all of our spare time being spent outdoors, we've been thinking a lot more about how to turn our outdoor spaces into additional rooms of our house. We have our finished patio to enjoy and a fairly barren roof top deck. Believe it or not, the roof deck is one of the coolest outdoor areas in the heat of the summer, so we're determined to create a lounge-y room-like space to enjoy. Here are a few of the sets of furniture that we think would do the trick.

via Crate & Barrel

via Frontgate

via Kingsley-Bate

We're still trying to make an ultimate decision based on pricing, size, style, and upkeep. In addition, there is the continual question-- do we go teak or all-weather resin wicker? Andrew is busy at work making dimensioned paper pieces and scooting them around on a mock up of our roof top deck. Outdoor lounge furniture turns out to be more expensive than we had thought, but everything that we've liked is great quality so we'd have to look at it as an investment. In the long run, we'd rather have something that lasts than have to get new furniture again in a few years.

Which set is your favorite? Any of you have teak or resin wicker? And why did you make your decision one way or another? Maybe you can sway us toward our ultimate choice.

We don't tend to buy a lot of stuff. We try to keep our stuff to a minimum in fact. But this weekend REI was having an amazing sale and we needed a few more things to add to our hiking and camping gear for our trip that we'll be taking out west this summer. One of the things on the list was a pair of new hiking boots for both of us. After we both found what we needed, it was obligatory that we tested them out. So we headed north of Baltimore to Rocks State Park.

This was the first time we had gone to this particular park and we were happily greeted with a 3 mile hike through various levels of elevation. And rocks. Lots and lots of rocks. This is the kind of hiking that I love. I liken it to the game of Tetris-- you have the think about each step you take beforehand to know just where your foot will fit along the trail.

The ultimate destination was the King and Queen Seat, a huge rock cliff that had been used by the Susquehannock Indians as a meeting place. In one of the rock formations you can actually see where two seats had been carved out for the leaders of the tribe to sit while the rest of the group sat below. And while I'm no rock climber, you should be able to spot some rock climbing ropes hanging down the side of the cliff as evidence of a few brave souls.

And in case anyone doubted why I should, for the most part, be the one behind the camera and not in front of it, well, here you go. This is what happens when you try to take sneaky photos of me while I'm trying not to freak out about the potential of falling over the edge of a steep cliff to my death.
You're welcome. I know you loved that one. Don't say I didn't warn you.

And what better way to end a good day of hiking than to stop at a little ice cream stand for some milkshakes. Milkshake comatose is how this day ended. All in all, this weekend was pretty much fantastic! Did you have just as awesome of a weekend?