Walking Dead

OK, so you won't read many posts here from me about this subject, but i just got back from Dain's Place watching the premier of The Walking Dead... and i thought it was fantastic!  There was quite a bit of deviation with dialog and stoiry line from the comic book series, but in my mind, that absolutely does not matter!  I thought the show was excellent and since i do not have cable or even an antenna to watch the show, i will every Sunday evening try and place myself in a location that can get the show, and watch  ...i must admit, i have had a bit of a zombie fixation ever since i was about 12 years old and saw "Return of the Living Dead." And if i get talking about zombie flicks i can geek out a bit ...anyway, i will refrain from doing so and end this post.  Check out Walking Dead.

Deep River Trip past Endor Iron Furnace

While every day on the water or in the woods is a good day, every so often there is a day that really is just excellent.  Yesterday, i guided a trip down the Deep River past the Endor Iron Furnace and everything was perfect.  The weather was just right (cool and sunny), all of the trip participants were interesting and engaging people, the avian wildlife was active and consistent, and Endor is always an awe inspiring structure to visit.  Even the take out at the 15-501 bridge which is notoriously, ...well, a pain in the ass, went smoothly.  Days like this are great reminders that this is why i do what i do.

Goose Creek Family Camping Trip

This past weekend we went on a family camping trip to Goose Creek State Park.  We try to take one camping trip a month with other friends and families.  My family consists of my amazing wife, Andrea, and our two beautiful children Miles (almost 6) and Zella (1 year, 4 months old).  These trips always have some sort of interesting challenge associated with them.  This particular trip was one of the most difficult we've had.  Things started off rough with us rushing to set camp before dark on Fri night, plus Z had some funky snotties, the temps were some of the coolest she's ever camped in (high 30s), plus she has no love for blankets or anything else over her when she sleeps, on top of this she has 2 new teeth coming in ...it was a relatively sleepless night, for us as well as our friends (sorry y'all).  The following evening we moved to a campsite further away in an effort to save our friends from the late night howls, screams, cries and other noises of discontent from Z.  However, the second night Z actually slept pretty well but we quickly discovered we were so far from our friends that we hardly saw them the remainder of the trip.  ...sad for us ;-(

All these aspects of the trip made it one of our families most challenging yet.  But taking a moment to step back during the trip as well as reflect on things a bit afterward, we were reminded that this trip was actually quite excellent despite our immediate perceptions.  First of all our whole family was camping!  That in and of itself is awesome.  We paddled our new-to-us family canoe for the first time, taking it out on 3 different little trips through both brackish and freshwater wetland swamp areas, and the open water of Goose Creek. One of our paddle trips was Miles very first night paddle and the moon was absolutely amazing! Miles also went fishing with a good buddy and caught his first fish, which we cleaned cooked and ate (awesome full-circle sort of moment)!  One of the families brought pumpkins (thanks M&M) that the kids designed jack-o-lanterns with and got to take home.  At night while trying to sleep we heard all sorts of wildlife (great horned owls, screech owls, and something that made a completely bizarre flapping noise as it flew right over top of our campsite). And finally even though we didn't see all our friends as much as we may have liked, we did still get to see them some and hang out in the woods together!

So, i suppose the take-away lesson here is that while creating these sorts of family outings has the chance of being difficult and challenging in certain ways, they also offer amazing educational opportunities and life altering moments for our kids and our family as a whole.  ...we'll keep doing 'em ;-)

Getting Started

I've been increasingly curious about starting a blog and...well, her i go.  My focus for this blog (at this point ;-) is adventure.  Adventure with my family, friends, and through work.  I hope i can keep things interesting and i hope you'll keep coming back to check things out!