Oh Shenandoah....

Hello, Hello! I am back in town from the Shenandoah Valley. Weekend number two at that beautiful place. This time Jeff and Abby tagged along for some camping fun. We met on Saturday and made a run for some groceries, then drove the one hour, forty-five minutes to the Matthews Arm Campground. I really like that Campground, despite the lack of showers.

We ate lunch at Elkswallow, set up our tents, and then set off down a trail towards the largest waterfall in the Shenandoah National Park. It is about 90 feet tall. Our hike started out with a rattlesnake sighting. I've never seen one apart from a zoo, and so it was quite frightening. Then we descended probably 1,000 feet at the least on our way to the falls. They were very pretty, kind of split into two skinny falls. Nate and Jeff took off on their own little adventure hike down to the bottom of the falls, while Abby and I ate fruit and sun bathed on a few high rocks.

The hike back up was quite rigorous. We drank all of our 100+ oz. of water before we made it to the top. The rest of the day was spent playing Texas Hold-Em and Euchre (and eating firecookedfood.... yum!). We bet with stones. I'm not so good at betting games, so I got out first on Texas Hold-Em... Nate won. We then played girls vs. guys Euchre, three times by the end of the day. I must state that the girls won the series. A very resounding and spectacular win : ) After that win, we hurried up to an overlook and watched the sunset. Sigh.

Food: Our food consisted of pizza pies (made in those little hobo pie maker) and s-mores. Cheesy chex-mix filled in the cracks.

The next morning we packed up and headed out around 7:30 am. We drove about 22 miles along Skyline drive. It was beautiful. The mountains and valleys almost looked soft and touchable as the sun rose higher in the sky. I loved it.

There is something to be said about camping. Even for a day and a night. I love being in nature, and being with some of my favorite people just kinda tops it off...

Speaking of my favorite people, I was in Kohl's yesterday and I missed my Mom. I don't think I've ever been to Kohl's without my Mom. Sniff. I'm a bit homesick.