A long time a'comin'!!

I have sadly gotten away from blogging about our lives/travels, etc., but I'm not going to go back and try to catch up on the last couple of years.  However, I will try to let you in on our latest adventures.  We had plans to spend last Christmas in a cozy one-room cabin in the woods of Bluestone State Park, in Hinton, WV. 

Unfortunately, the below zero temps with strong winds nixed that plan!  So we postponed our trip to April and had an absolutely wonderful time tucked away amongst the trees. We did a lot of relaxing, reading and exploring, including a trip to Sandstone Falls which spans the whole width of the river.  There is a boardwalk which meanders through the trees and even connects to small islands.

This broom tree caught my eye...so wispy!

See all the downed trees and debris from flooding events?

And the trees still had that "spring green" that I love! 

The dogwood were still in bloom here...

We also made a trip to Grandview.  Sadly, 

it was hazy day, but a spectacular view nonetheless!  See the train tracks....

...and now see a train leaving the train yard.

There were several trails including this one....called Tunnel Rocks.

Lots to see along the way...

Hmmm...wonder where the trail got its name?!?

And then a side trip to Little Beaver State Park was in order where we took advantage of the trail around the small lake.  There was some fishing going on (not by us today) and this turtle was perched right up on the log by one of the guys dangling his hook hoping to catch enough for dinner.

The park was also home to quite the population of Canada geese.  This guy, in particular seemed to be posing after he did some preening!

We decided to take advantage of our proximity to Pipestem Resort and enjoy dinner there on our last night of this little getaway.  On our way, we stopped at this lovely waterfall in a little park right by

the side of the road (scoped out by my honey because he knows how much I love waterfalls).

And the pink dogwood were abundant here,

View from the lodge at Pipestem...

We enjoyed a delicious dinner followed by a beautiful sunset to close out our day.

But as we all know, there's no place like home.  And shortly after arriving home, we enjoyed this gorgeous rainbow off the back deck.  So blessed in so many ways!