Summer Retreat

My summer break from school is one and a half weeks old.  So far, I have been relatively slothful.  Normally during breaks I have lists of things I want to accomplish.  The list is quite short this summer.  Relax and create.  That's it.  Oh, and try to watch all of the Coen Brothers' movies that I can.

Mark and I backpacked into Dolly Sods, West Virginia last week.  That sounds like it is neither a part of "relax" nor "create."  I made it work though.  See below.

Relaxing by the rapids.

Preparing to ....relax.....???...in a cold mountain stream.

Taking relaxing day hikes.  Well, relaxing might not be the right word.  We relaxed occassionally on the hikes.  Compared to the death marches we usually take and call "hikes", it was relatively serene.

No internet here.  The only "friending" we did was with the crayfish, bugs, deer and solitary snake.

Fossil hunting.  I could do this all day long.  Every day.  Most any place that you look along the creek will yield fossilized remains of plants or impressions of the same.  Most are not pretty enough to bring home and display, but they are amazingly abundant.  This particular one would have loved to have come home with me, but lugging it out of the wilderness in my backpack was really not going to happen.

Here was the "create" part of the trip.  I backpacked in some crocheting.  What could be more relaxing than crocheting by a mountain stream.  Whew!  Just the thought gives me goosebumps.  There was some drawing too, but I'm not feeling enough love for those to show them.

Next on my agenda will be my yearly "Jan-cation."  Lots more resting and creating to come.