Good Monday Morning 08.03.26

Happy Monday friends!  I hope you had a wonderful weekend.  Mine was blessed.  That is simply an answer to prayer and God’s goodness, and I am grateful.  As I mentioned last week, we went away for a couple of days and it was lovely.  The weather was perfection.  Truly.  We had such a nice couple of days.  I actually took pictures but, as I was looking though them, they all look alike.  Clear calm lake, green trees for miles and such pretty skies!  Fair warning…most of the pictures look the same, but I will share some throughout this post.

We were in Roanoke, West Virginia.  The drive over the mountain is always fun.  This isn’t even the switchbacks.  Just WV highways…so different to the congested interstates at home.  There were long stretches when we were the only vehicle on the road.  I was amused with the curves ahead:)

The resort sits on a lake of over 2600 acres.  It was so calm and pretty…I was in my happy place!  Some people crave the beach (and I can enjoy the sand and tumble of ocean waves every so often) but my soul is really refreshed at the lake!  We went out on a pontoon boat.  That is just my speed:)  We even caught ourselves talking about getting a boat of our own.  But we snapped out of it!!  Renting a boat every once in awhile is enough boat for me.

We also did some hiking.  I think we hiked almost three miles.  Not too bad for two old people.  This is start of the trail.  It got quite hilly, as well as rocky, the further we went.  I logged more steps in one day than I typically do in two days combined.  I was pretty pleased with myself!  Along the trail, there were a few signs pointing out local trees, vegetation…and the local wildlife.  Imagine my surprise….

Wild boar??!  Are you kidding me?  The sign (gently) suggested that we do not feed or approach the wildlife – including the wild boar!  (Again, are you kidding me?)  I have to admit, I was a bit “wigged out” (as in excited, nervous and/or frightened – all of the above) at the idea of potentially crossing paths with a wild boar.  But, thankfully, no oversized and/or aggresive wildlife was spotted.  There were some deer but they seemed completely unperturbed by us.  My kind of wildlife.

We had planned to rent bikes.  The shortest rental slot was for two hours which seemed doable, although my husband has not ridden a bike in close to twenty years (or the best we can remember).   There were all kinds of bikes to rent.  All shapes, sizes, etc.  However, every single bike had one of those tiny, incredibly skinny seats that no human should ever have to endure.  The thought of twenty minutes (much less two hours!) on one of those seats was a hard no for us.  A bit of bummer.  I was rather looking forward to bike riding again but, perhaps, we dodged a huge bullet there.

I don’t know if you can distinquish them clearly but, in this photo, there are trees (thin, white ones without leaves) growing out of the water.  I’m not sure.  I thought they looked so cool.  My husband said they were dead but, if that were the case, wouldn’t they just fall over?  I’ve heard of bald cypress and certain willows that grow in water but I have no idea if that is what these plants/trees are…but I was captivated by them.  Any ideas??

The weather was perfect the entire time we were away.  The morning we were leaving, clouds had rolled in and the sun did not make its appearance before we headed out.  But it was still beautiful.  God’s creation is simply breathtaking!  We were grateful to get away.  God encouraged us and saw us through another (potentially) difficult weekend.  Thank you to everyone who left kind comments.  I look forward to catching up with each of you soon.  Here’s to a good week ahead!!