You know, it seems like summer was so long ago. The warm nights watching the grandkids chase fireflies, sitting next to the campfire roasting marshmallows and watching the sun dip into whatever body of water we were sitting next to. I LOOOOOOVE Summer and really want to chase it around the globe, but at Christmastime, I feel like I SHOULD be home – right? A co-worker and his family packed up their belongings, took their dog to the sitter and boarded a plane for Aruba for Christmas. As he was gearing up for his trip, I started to think his idea might be fun. No cookies to bake, to meal to prep ..read more

The title itself seems like a no brainer for any of you who love it when the nights get cool, the leaves become beautiful and you can smell, buy and taste pumpkin spice just about anywhere. This year our fall camping experience took me back to where I feel most at home...Assateague Island. What I love the most about camping in the fall is that the crowds aren't as great, the traffic isn't terrible and it feels so much like an escape. We were only able to spend a couple days at the beach but it's had me smiling all week. When we left Pennsylvania, it was about 50 degrees. I packed jeans and o ..read more

I woke this morning to a crispness in the air to the point that I almost thought it would be time to put the shorts away - but Nah not yet! However, I could smell a wood burner from somewhere in the neighborhood and our valley was covered in fog. Those things combined with the black walnuts falling from the tree out front and the beginnings of falling leaves says to me it's festival season! So many people love this time of the year with the pumpkin spiced this and the pumpkin spiced that. Generally I'm a summer girl, but it is nice to be able to get the hoodies out of the closet and cozy up un ..read more

One of the deciding factors of buying our first camper was so we could take our friends along for the ride. Specifically, our four legged friends. We had our girl Abby, then our sweet Tori and now our big wonderful Penny. Each has been a joy and each one loved to "go" in the car and on vacation for a week or just overnight. It didn't matter to them where we went or how long we stayed, they just loved going to a new place for a new smell and to see new things. Dogs have a wanderlust that something awesome is just around the next corner, so they go looking for it - not unlike John and I and you ..read more

So, funny story. You know how I like going to Gettysburg? I LOOOVE the downtown and shopping and walking in the footsteps of Lincoln. I make a trek there at least once a year and have even had previous blogs centered around the happenings of Gettysburg. This year for vacation I pitched the idea to the family (in January) of going to Gettysburg for a few days, and then down to Shenandoah and then over to Yorktown, VA. Sounded like fun. Everyone was on board. Remember, I booked the trip in January. Well as it turns out, so did many of my friends who own motorcycles. The week I picked was Gettys ..read more

Luray Caverns, Virginia - Dream Lake reflects like a mirror Luray Caverns is like the Grand Canyon Caves! It seemed like there was a bigger room every time we turned a corner on the self-guided path in this underground redwood forest. It was immense, colossal, beautiful and awe-inspiring. In the big scheme of the world I’d have to say I’m not really a “cave person”. Growing up, my mom and Aunt Thelma were captivated by the concept of going under ground, and growing up where I did, there were three fairly large commercial caves within an hour. Heck one of them was 10 minutes from home - so w ..read more

This story is going to fall into a category of “stuff I found while I was looking for other stuff”. Tibbetts Point Lighthouse is simply beautiful. I know, those of you who read my blog know that I have never found a lighthouse I didn’t like. But seriously this one is beautiful and we found it while we were going for dinner in Cape Vincent, NY. Earlier in the day we had met a photographer in Fineview which is a tiny little town on Wellesley island on the St. Lawrence River. It was John’s birthday and I was shopping. I bopped into this quaint little shop in Fineview and the photographer introdu ..read more

Look at the size of that campsite. We recently had the opportunity to stay at two Virginia State Parks www.dcr.virginia.gov that were on opposite sides of the state from one another. The picture above is of our campsite at Belle Isle State Park near Richmond. We also stayed at the Shenandoah River State Park near the Skyline Drive National Park. Both were amazing and had huge campsites with water and electric. We didn’t pay extra for water or electric, in fact Virginia State Parks campsites come standard with water and electric at every site!! Now I’m not talking that they have a water drop f ..read more

Thousand Islands Winery Sign On a recent trip to the #ThousandIslandsRegion, which includes the towns of #AlexandriaBay and #Clayton we discovered the #ThousandIslandsWinery. I know you’re shocked, I sniffed out a winery while I was on vacation. Well I have a valid reason, honest! It was overcast and on and off rain all day. The grandkids and their mom were tired so they were napping at the camper and we were bored. See I told you it was valid. On this trip to the Thousand Islands (you may recall we went there last year on a hunch) we spent more time exploring and since it was a rainy day ..read more

It’s been warm for a few weeks and so nice outside that I haven’t had an extra minute to write because I’ve been getting the plants in the garden and mowing the grass like 16 times a week - not really, but it seems that way. John and I also re-did the front porch and put in a new flower area and front sidewalk. Seriously, I’m exhausted, but this morning, since Penny (my dog) got me up at 05:30, I figured I’d just stay up and after cleaning a few spots inside, I thought I’d spend some time in my backyard garden and enjoy the fruits of my labors over the last few weeks. As I sit here listening ..read more