Lovely morning everyone 🙂  I am so glad to be back into the swing of things.  I have been hunting for a new place to call home and I have finally found a wonderful place to lay my head 🙂  I was really searching hard for a place that is affordable and in my ideal location and I have found it!  I am able to go out my front door and WALK to my favorite bakery, natural foods store and the most important, my beloved Rocky River Reservation.  I have never been more excited and felt more whole and complete than I do right now since I have been back from California.  It was very important to me to follow what my mind and heart wanted.  What I wanted was something small, cozy and intimate with LOTS of character.  I have always gravitated towards much older spaces.  You know, the ones with skeleton key locks, original woodwork, built in cabinets and old cast iron bathtubs.   I really like my new home and I am taking my time to decorate it and make it my peaceful dwelling space. Â
So now that you know what I have been up to for the past few months let get going!
It has been a long cold winter but I was able to get out a few times and lead a beautiful day hike and weekend backpacking trip. Â
That was such a fun day!  The Jaite to Boston trail is one I originally did with my cousin Anna.  It is 5.6 miles one way (we only did part of it in the above pic.)  It is a great trail to hike in the winter because not only does it work your big muscle groups in your legs but it is a great hip strengthening trail because of the balance you have to maintain while trekking up and down in the snow!  I loved it and I know others did too 🙂
Back in February I led a small trip to Archer’s Fork Loop down in Wayne National Forest.  I first found out about this trail in an issue of Backpacker’s Magazine.  I was so stoked to see a local trail that was is only about 3 hours away featured in a national magazine!  Whoo Hoooo for Backpacker’s Magazine!  This trail was very cool because it feature a natural rock bridge and a really cool cave.  Now being someone who has explored our national parks well and has lived in California, I have to say that when I find these gems that are all over the Yosemite, Yellowstone etc, it is very nice to find them in your own backyard!  Beauty is everywhere,  big or small it all has an impact on our senses and psyche.  Breathe it all in.  Let it go.  But keep a small breath in your lungs and carry it with you always.  I was born in Montana and my family moved back to Ohio when I was only a few months old.  But I swear I breathed in the air of  Big Sky country and it has never left me.  My folks took us everywhere.  Camping and traveling to parks.  I am so incredibly thankful for that, for it instilled in me my sense of wonder/wander (lol…) and what really stuck with me is my parents saying, “Why not take you kids everywhere?  Kids are portable!”  My dad did the driving and navigating and my mom…. holy moly…she organized EVERYTHING and thought of EVERYTHING for her four children!  She was like a Native American woman who could set up and pack up  her Tipi (or teepee) in record time all the while being SUPER organized.  I hope to be that organized and resourceful one day! Â
 The weather started out cold, then became much colder and then warmed up to almost 45 degrees by the end of the trip!  It was so much fun!  The trail is in the middle of what we believe is fracking country.  It was a really beautiful trail but I could have done without the gas lines that we would sometimes trip over.  We set up camp next to a small brook and it was the perfect place to meditate and do yoga in the morning.  What was funny was the guys were having a debate about some very close sounds that surrounded our camp that night.  Mihai believed them to be coyotes and in his true Romanian fashion set off to scare them off by hooting, hollering and running wildly up the hill!  Hahahaha!!!! Wish I had it on video!  Anthony on the other hand believed them to be owls and was a very perplexed as to WHY Mihai would want to scare off owls!  So for the remainder of the trip almost everything was a reference to coyotes and owls!  Â
I am excited to be heading out again next weekend. Â Friends and I are meeting up tomorrow to vote on the place we want to go. Â I am also in the works of planning a big trip out west. Â More on that one later! Â
Now I am on my way to wonder the woods and later take my best friend Sara out for her birthday dinner! Â Little Italy here we come!
Hope you all have an amazing day!
I would love to hear some of your travel stories so please feel free to post in the comments section!
“Give what you have. Â To someone it may be better than you dare to think.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Wildflowers Lori 