The Olympics have ended, school has started, and people are already acting like it’s fall now! Stop it! I’m loving summer and though the temps are still steamy, I’m not wishing away the warm weather anytime soon. Though Saturday was a hot day, Brady and I headed out towards Frederick to hike Sugarloaf Mountain. I’ve only been here once and I was probably 9-10 years old.
After lunch on Saturday, we met up with my family and some friends at Catoctin Mountin Park to go hiking to Chimney Rock. This is a 2.2 out and back hike with a 550+ foot elevation gain (map here). There are many trails throughout the area with points of interest like Wolf Rock but my family has always enjoyed hiking here.
Fall is here! I don’t know if I’m the only one, but I feel like like the transition from summer to fall is the most significant season change.
It’s one of those things that you just step outside and it’s like the air feels and even smells completely different! Once it’s happened, it’s never truly summer again.
I am a little disappointed because I feel as though we’ve officially set the winter timer into motion… but I am looking forward to a lot of things this fall! It’s the season where we apparently gain the most weight… as I have in most years past… but it’s no surprise with all the rich and delicious foods that we only really eat around this time of year!
Here are some of the items that I’ve put on my fall bucket list.
1 . Renaissance Festival– Brady and I have gone together twice before early on in high school (long before we started dating). It’s a really unique experience – costumes and showy bosoms everywhere.
2. Food, Food, Food! -A few of the things I’m looking forward to:
3. Camping, hiking, and enjoying the beautiful fall colors.
5. Make theseย cinnamon scented pinecones!
6. Pumpkin decorating (Carving, Painting, and Glitter)
7. Game Night– A couple of favorites include Ticket to Ride, Scotland Yard, and Dutch Blitz (affiliate links).
8. Corn Maze– This is something that I love doing even though I only did it for the first time a couple of years ago.
9. Build a fire in the fireplace and have a warm and snuggly night in.
10. Apple picking at Larriland farm.
11. Fall 5k. I’m starting to bounce back from my injury and I’d really like to be able to do at least one more event this year.
12. Clear Meadows Farm Sunflowers– I’ve heard a lot about this place and over the past few years it’s become a really popular place to go and take photos. I’d like to check it out before the harvest!
(13.) See a Movie. There haven’t been a whole lot of good movies that have come out this year… Hanna, Brady and I have seen the last 3 movies together so I’m looking forward to finishing out the Hunger Games series the week that Hanna is home for Thanksgiving.
Did I leave out one of your favorite fall traditions?
What are you looking forward to doing this fall as the weather starts to cool down?
Our canoe trip was canceled… ๐ So on Saturday, hubs and I decided to be healthy humans after a day of sitting inside and doing nothing. I convinced him to go with me to Warren Dunes State Park in Southwestern Michigan for a little dune hiking. The giant hill at the dunes is great if you want a really good lung workout. It’s a killer.
Well, I missed out on that joy this time because hubby suggested we actually do the hiking trails. What?! There are hiking trails? I’ve been to this park so many times over the past 5 years and I just assumed the lakefront and all the dunes towering over the parking lots was the majority of the park. But there are actually a few miles of trails.
The trails were actually quite nice. Not quite as nice as the trails going through Ludington State Park that we traversed a few weeks ago, but still enjoyable. The sun was out. The humidity was high. But all in all, we were having a pretty nice afternoon walk. At about the halfway point… A minimum of a mile hike away from the car, we started to hear some rumbling thunder. I figured a little rain wouldn’t be too bad because I was already drenched in sweat… but I also didn’t want to become a lightning rod out in the sand once we got out of the woods and back onto the dunes.
I wish I had a picture of intensely dark clouds looming over the dunes/woods behind us as we came out but at that point, it was starting to rain we were beginning to hustle. I did manage to grab a photo of the horizon so you can get an idea of what was coming.
By the time we got to the beach, this was headed towards us.
While to our right, it almost seemed like we were just going to be enjoying a nice sunset.
Within a few minutes, we were being pelted by large heavy raindrops that might as well have been bullets being hurled against us in hurricane-like winds. You can kind of see the rain in the next couple of photos.
For some reason, I had decided to wear makeup and at this point, my mascara was falling off my eyelashes and running into my eyes. I had to take my glasses off because it was raining so hard and glasses wipers don’t exist (?).
At this point, we had been hiking for at least an hour and a half, I was drenched and I figured why bother rushing to get back anymore? The worst of the storm and ugly clouds were to the east of us and we’d be out of the rain soon. Once it did stop raining, I had to take this photo because it was hilarious. You can see just how hard we were walking into the rain. At least the phones stayed dry.
What an adventure.
