Goodbye to Summer

A couple weeks ago, we went camping at Rocky Gap State Park. It became my favorite place to go last year. It has this beautiful lake in which to swim.

 And shady campsites. I just love our tent. We were fortunate...great weather, no bugs and no rain. Just about all you can ask for when camping.

 We even fixed well rounded meals. Hee hee.

 The first morning, we hit the ground running. At least Ben and I did. This year we wanted to conquer the Lakeside Loop trail. It is a 5 mile trail around the entire Lake Habeeb. Last year, we hiked part of it and it was our goal for this year. We set off looking clean, dry and happy.

And came home happy. You can't see my sweat in my white shirt, but you could at least tell I had to put my hair in a ponytail from the heat.

 It is a beautiful trail. A lot of it is in the shade. You walk from the campsite to the dam, to the resort (perfect for bathroom breaks and refilling water bottles). 

 We made sure to stop for a snack or two along the way. I wanted to keep my kid happy after all.

The next morning, Ben wanted more excitement so we went on the Evitts Homesite trail. This is a very difficult trail and we were only aiming to do about a mile or two of it. This rock scramble was the highlight of Ben's day, but the bane of my existence. My hamstrings were feeling it later that day.

 On Sunday morning, I took Eddie to the Birds of Prey nature program. It was great to see this barred owl up close and not in its cage. We got to see eagles, barn, barred and screech owls, a falcon and a black vulture who was the riot of the morning. We witnessed the naturalists feeding all the birds their rats or mice for the day. And boy did that vulture make us laugh and gag all at the same time. 

 For our final night's meal, we drove to Cumberland. There is a great pizza place named Uncle Jack's that we have gone to twice now. It was a good night to sit in some air conditioning.

 See ya later summer! Thanks for a great finale!