I did not grow up camping. (I would famously sign up for girl scout camping trips, get all the way to the parking lot, then refuse to get on the bus with everyone else.) NO ONE would mistake me for a tomboy (even though I grew up playing outside most of the time). So when John first started expressing an interest in camping, hiking, and backpacking our junior year of college, my first thought was, oh HECK no. No, thank you. You go do your thing; I’m great right here.

However, a hallmark of our relationship has always been quality time together. We do almost EVERYTHING together, minus the eight or so hours per day we’re at our jobs. If John is mowing the lawn, I’m probably out weeding something. If I’m working on stirrers, John is probably researching a trip in the chair beside me. We do have our own interests and hobbies, but we love being together and try to maximize that as much as we can. So this new activity that I was vehemently not interested in caused a tiff between us for awhile… until I eventually gave in :)

And gosh, I’m so glad I did! We’ve had some amazing adventures over the last few years and seen so many beautiful things by traveling on foot and sleeping away from civilization. By far the most impressive was our post-graduation hike in the Presidentials, summitting Mount Adams (the second highest peak in the Northeast!) and Mount Jefferson.

Yes, that photo is showing you we hiked on our own two feet ABOVE the clouds!! The beautiful thing about camping and hiking, though, is that you can have equally fun, challenging, and inspiring experiences closer to home and without as much time commitment (or sweat!). We’ve had some great adventures in North Carolina, too:

These days, we do less backpacking (where we carry everything on our backs and hike out to a campsite) and more car camping (which still involves sleeping in a tent, but there are usually bathrooms and running water and you don’t have to carry all of your supplies with you!). Both are fun; the main trade-off is convenience for breathtaking vistas! If you want to spend quality time with friends, I can’t think of a better bonding experience than sitting around a campfire with no distractions and hours together stretching in front of you. It’s like the grown-up version of a sleepover!

I wonder if any of y’all were surprised when I mentioned camping on EFM for the first time. Either way, I hope my experience encourages you to give camping and hiking a try if you’ve been hesitant in the past!

In my next post, I’ll share some of our camping favorites. Once you have a basic stock of supplies it’s a delightfully inexpensive and beautiful way to travel, but it can be intimidating and expensive when you’re just starting out!

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Friends!! It’s been a whirlwind three weeks in which I’ve slept six nights in my own bed. First we had our trip to New York City, then our annual camping trip with friends, then a Texas road trip between Houston and Texas for work. And then I hosted a baby shower for 45 people at our house on Saturday!! Lots to report. Let’s start with camping.

For the past three years we’ve spent a weekend camping with friends, and it has quickly become one of our favorite traditions! This year it was the Rays and us; we were trying to squeeze in a trip before Nancy got toooo pregnant. We risked a March trip, and happily were rewarded with a sunny, 65 degree Saturday and nights in the low 50’s! We stayed at the Carolina Beach state park and ventured into nearby Wilmington for lunch on Saturday. The park has beautiful trails, and aside from the fact that the water smelled a bit swampy, we had no complaints. S’mores and great conversation were enjoyed by all.

We arrived home from camping around 1:30pm on Sunday, and my flight to Texas left at 7pm – about enough time in between to wash my hair and do a load of laundry! While in Texas most of my days were taken up with work, so I don’t feel I can give any sort of comprehensive guide, but there were a few highlights:

Blue bonnets on the drive between Houston and Austin!

City Meat Market in Giddings, Texas! So legit. Bare bones. You tell them what you want, they chop it up, slap two slices of white bread out of a bag on top, and hand it to you by the four corners of the paper underneath. Delicious!

Torchy’s Tacos in Austin! When you mention Austin, everyone mentions Torchy’s, and it didn’t disappoint. The queso was the best I’ve ever had, better by a smidge than White Duck’s. We also ate at 24 Diner (and it was also delicious!). Thanks to tour guide Lisa for steering our ship!

As a final highlight from Texas, I got to spend one day with a favorite online pal, Victoria. We worked on a project together and it is going to be sooooo good :)

Whew! After all of that excitement, I feel a bit like my cat:

She says to do lists are for the birds. More soon!!

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To wrap up our week of adventures, I thought I’d post some pictures from the spring camping trip we took with some of our bestest friends. Said friends happen to all be professional photographers, so John and I figured it was safe to leave our camera at home :)

We camped at Hanging Rock State Park in Danbury (about two hours from the Triangle), and I can’t recommend it highly enough for a “soft” trip – i.e. if you’re not into the idea of carrying everything you need for the night into the woods. Hanging Rock was wild enough that we felt like we were off the beaten path and beautiful enough to encourage us to hike up steep hills, but civilized enough so that we ate well, could concentrate on enjoying each other’s company, and didn’t have to pee in the woods :)

A few photos, courtesy of Nancy Ray! (And P.S., you can read her blog post here!)

Yep, we brought peonies. That’s how this group rolls.

Fun with friends! Nothing better. If you’re interested in Hanging Rock, John’s also written about it on his blog here!

P.S. By far the most exciting part of our trip was Sam and Graham telling us they are expecting!! December is going to be an exciting month!

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What are you up to this weekend, my friends? We are going camping for this first time in 2011! It will also be our first time staying at a KOA — have you all ever been to one? (We usually pitch out tent farther out in the woods.) I can’t say I’m disappointed that there will be easily accessible showers :)

Send us warm thoughts — the temperature overnight in the mountains could be in the 20’s! Brrr!! We are bringing sweatpants, s’more supplies, and lots of hot chocolate.

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