What We Did on Our Summer Vacation!

Adventure Girl!

  Ropes course

Realizing that Shonnie’s graduate studies at Western Carolina University were about to resume and Gracelyn would soon start online classes at Evergreen Community Charter School, we began planning a break from our usual pandemic routines. After briefly considering the beach, we decided on a mountain retreat filled with adventurous activities that wound up including finding our way through a challenging ropes course, scampering up a climbing wall, zipping down a zip line, zooming through the rapids of the Nantahala River (with an experienced guide at the helm—Shonnie), all at the inimitable Nantahala Outdoor Center. Then in the evenings, we retired to our little cabin in the woods for yummy homemade dinners, reading, playing Clue, and listening to some of our favorite audio-books.

                   Rafting on the mighty Nantahala!

On our final day we went hiking among the gigantic trees at Joyce Kilmer National Forest (featuring tulip poplars more than 20 feet in circumference and over 100 feet tall). We’re now back home, a bit tired physically, refreshed and renewed emotionally, feeling much more connected as a family, and ready to take on whatever life brings our way.

                I think that I shall never see . . .

                     Home away from home