O, Shenandoah

Sunday morning we took the opportunity to drive out to Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park and take a beautiful fall walk in the woods. The air was blue and crisp, the surroundings were breathtakingly beautiful, and the company was sweet.

We parked at the first visitor's center and found three caterpillars right off. We made wishes on milkweed seeds and then headed off on Fox Hollow Trail, a 1.2 mile loop. We stopped for everything, including an impromptu family photo. The girls made sure we all had forest animal aliases (a fawn named Spot, a squirrel named Nutsy, a bobcat named... Bob, you get the idea), and everyone delighted in finding interesting things along the trail.

This trail meanders past a tiny cemetery that predates the park and is the final resting place of Lemuel Fox and his daughter, Gertrue. It also goes past a field of thistle and milkweed where we saw lots of little buggy critters. The easy 1.2 miles took us- yes- one hour. It was as much my fault as any small child's, stopping to take pictures every so often and picking up beautiful leaves for a project I have in mind.

These kinds of walks are fairly common in our family life. They are one of the things that keeps us all on the same page and binds us together a little more. I look forward to every single one.