We had been planning on going up to Grandfather to hike the profile trail up to Calloway Peak for about 3 weeks now. Since the weather has been so mild this winter, we didn’t think we would have any issues with snow. We already had Sarah’s mom arranged to come watch the kids for us so that we could get out by ourselves, which we seldom do.  This was going to be our Valentines Day getaway and in my head I was going no matter what….and after a bit of reassurance to Sarah that it would be OK, she was on board too.  According to Ray’s Weather, the high for Linville was 27 degrees and calling for light snow and 20-30 mph winds. So when you add another 1500 ft. or so elevation, I expected it to be a bit worse the further up we got….and it was.

We got to the trail head about 10 am or so and got our permits filled out, gloves on and also threw our gators on.  I’ve never hiked the profile trail before, but had heard a lot of good things about it.  It starts off pretty moderate following a creek for about half mile before turning up towards the summit.  I would say the first 2 miles are pretty moderate with a few spots that had some steeps in it. The snow at the bottom was probably about 2 inches deep or so and really dry.It wasn’t sticking to anything which was nice because it kept our boots dry the whole time. At about the 2 mile mark we came up on a group of 4 people that were making there way up a pretty technical section but seemed to be moving fairly slowly. I thought to myself that maybe it was an elderly couple out exploring or something. Read the rest of this entry »

There still is not too much new going on the past 2 days. We got up and went to the farmers market in Southport this morning. We picked up some fresh peaches which were delish as well as some little beeswax candles that a guy had hand made. After that we headed to the pool for a bit, grabbed some dinner, then went down to the Yaupon Pier on Oak Island to let Pierce play around in the water a bit. Enjoy the shots….

Broadcasting live from Oak Island, NC. We are down here for the week to get a little vacation in. The main objective for the week is to relax. We’ve basically been getting up in the mornings and hitting either the pool or the beach, grabbing some lunch after that and then hitting up whatever we didn’t do in the morning. On Monday we took the 35 minute ferry ride over from Southport to Fort Fisher to check out the aquarium. I hadn’t ever been to the aquarium over there but had heard decent things about it. I was pretty impressed at the set up they had. Pierce was really excited about pretty much everything in there….He is still talking about it today.

Once we were done with the aquarium we headed up to Downtown Wilmington to walk around for a bit. We checked out some of the local shops, grabbed a bite to eat and headed over to my best friend Josh’s place to hang out for a bit. Josh is in the early stages of building a 19 ft wooden fishing boat. I can’t wait to see his progress of this over the next few months. It’s going to be RAD! I wish I was closer so I could help out.

Oh and by the way, Ayla is growing like a weed. It seems like every day she is getting bigger or doing something new. Her new thing is to pull up on whatever is nearby and get herself in a standing position….then she continues to do this evil little laugh that sounds almost fake…I’ll try to get it on video maybe. Anyways, she’s starting to get a personality now, which is when I think things start to get fun. Stay tuned for more and enjoy a few of the pics we’ve taken so far this week.