A Lazy Sunday Afternoon

I love the fall! I can't say it enough times. It's the season for all my favorite holidays. I love the cool crisp air, anything that has to do with pumpkins, hot cocoa, and jeans. Most of all I love the beautiful fall colors. It's a time when the long hot days of summer have finally passed, and we can settle in with our slippers and cozy up on the couch with a fuzzy blanket. It just gives me that warm feeling on the inside, and in my opinion there is no better place to celebrate the beauty of fall that right here at home.

 On Sunday afternoon we decided to celebrate International Earth Cache day by taking a drive through the mountains to Lover's Leap at White Top Mountain (GC1N7WA). We drove through my hometown of Chilhowie, VA, up to White Top, and then home through Damascus, VA. One big lazy circle. The trees were absolutely beautiful on the way up. Oranges, reds, yelllows, and browns, with just the slightest hint of evergreens remaining in between. It is a sight I look forward too every year. It means that Halloween, Thanksgiving, and the Christmas season is right around the corner.

Once we reached the balds of White Top the view wasn't as spectacular, until we stepped out on Lover's Leap. You can see for miles and it was georgeous. At least it was for me. My hubby and Batman aren't as fond of heights as Thunder and I are, so they stayed back with our pups Ruby and Rusty. The trees were absolutely glowing with color. It reminded me of that line from an old song "fire on the mountain, run boy run" but there were no devils here. Only the bright glow of the fall leaves below us.



We made our way back to the car and picked up a couple of other caches along the way, but the focus of this trip was just enjoying the fall colors, taking some much needed pictures of my kids, and being lazy. When we reached Damascus we stopped at a local park and snapped some pictures of the kids. I'm still working on my processing skills and getting to know my new camera so they weren't as great as I had hoped they would be, but I still got a few good shots. All in all we had an enjoyable day together.

I hope one day my children look back at their childhood and remember all the beautiful places that we have visited. I hope they learn to respect nature and share the same love of the outdoors that I did as a child. Sure, times have changed a bit, and gone are the days of riding bikes in the street and walking down to the river with your best friend to fish by yourselves, but there is still so much untouched beauty in our world that I want them to experience. Much more so than television and games. Those things have their place but not when they take the place of days like this.

Batman

Thunder