There is something about doing hard things with your daughter. Not the kind of hard that involves tears or crisis or the particular drama that mothers and daughters are capable of generating together — we are very good at that kind too, trust me. I mean the quiet kind of hard. The kind where you…
I want to talk about May. Not the pretty parts — the wildflowers and the longer days and the way the trail smells after rain. I mean the real May. The one that showed up at my door with a full suitcase and stayed longer than welcome. It started with work. I went on a…
Let me introduce you to Salty Beach. Salty Beach is my Harvest Right Large freeze dryer — a 5-tray appliance roughly the size of a mini fridge that lives in my detached garage on a stainless food service table because she requires a dedicated 20-amp plug and does not apologize for it. She came into…
The original plan had been caverns. Nobody mentioned anything about a 900-foot elevation gain. The Morning After Christine and I are both early risers, and this Sunday morning in our Harrisonburg hotel room was no different. The moment we each realized the other was awake, I whispered “Good morning.” She whispered back “How are your…
The original plan was four caverns. We got three. And honestly, we earned every single one of them. The Drive Up Christine and I left early on March 7th, heading west toward the Shenandoah Valley. If you’ve never driven into the mountains from the Virginia coast, let me tell you — the moment the landscape…
There’s a small state park about five minutes from my house that I drove past for four years without ever stopping. I wanted to. Every time I passed the entrance I’d think I should walk those trails sometime. But doing things alone in the woods as a woman is a different calculation than just lacing up your…
What started as a bold kayaking invitation turned into the most meaningful friendship after 40 I could have imagined. I ambushed Christine. I’m not proud of it. Well, actually, I am a little proud of it — because it turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. We met on a…
I remember the exact moment I realized the house was too quiet. I didn’t know it then, but I was about three weeks away from starting hiking at 47 — and everything that came with it. It wasn’t dramatic. Nobody was crying. There was no big sendoff or empty-nest breakdown moment that I could point…