A short getaway

 

This was our 35th “first anniversary” on Valentine’s Day.  We had thought about staying somewhere in the mountains, but decided instead to take day trips.  I would much rather use my own facilities anyway, and since we are so close to the mountains and other hiking areas, we opted for this instead.  We had a great time. 

1. On Sunday, the 13th, we went to Crossroad Baptist Church with our Mel, Jenny, and the 5 K’s!   We enjoyed eating at Wendy’s with them after church!  The church is doing well and the Lord is blessing.  You can see their website here.
2. We took a drive into South Carolina and hiked to Twin Falls.  It was a beautiful day and this was a short easy hike.  I do so enjoy God’s scenery and am thankful for it.
3. On Monday, we went to Crowder's Mountain and hoped to hike one of their very pretty hikes which we have done before.  But my shins were not doing well today so we walked a little ways along the pathway and turned around.    We will just have to do that another day.  We headed toward Charlotte to go to the IMAX theatre, stopping at Cracker Barrel along the way for our Valentine lunch.  We viewed “The Alps” which is a true story about a mountain climber.  It was good and we did not hear too much stuff about “millions and millions of years ago”.  I really wonder what happens to these people once they fulfill their dreams of climbing mountains or whatever.  No one will every find fulfillment without Christ. 

 

This digital scrapbooking design customized with Smilebox

 

Holden Beach, NC

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Stone Mountain, North Carolina

A beautiful place to hike to.  It is quite a hard hike, but well worth it!  It was very hot that day so that made it quite difficult, but it was still fun.  I paid for it the next couple days with lots of soreness.  It took us about an hour to get to the top from where we started.  That was probably the shortest part of the trail.  You can go lots longer if you would like making a whole loop.  No thanks – this was enough for me and the prettiest part anyway. This park is near the Blue Ridge Parkway so if you have time you can enjoy the drive and the views there.

 

Hiking the Carolinas - Stone Mountain, NC

Blue Ridge Excursion

What a privilege to be able to take a couple days and just spend it relaxing in the mountains.  We are only a couple hours away from the Blue Ridge and this is one of my favorite places to go.  It is so refreshing just to drive and stop and the overlooks and admire God’s creation!  We even watched a sunset over the mountains. As we look at the mountains and see something different in each view we are reminded of the unsearchable greatness of God and His ways which are past finding out.
Psalms 145:3  Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.
Romans 11:33  O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
Isaiah 40:28  Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.
Creation literally shouts with the reality that God is the creator and the Savior of the World.  Man is without excuse.
Romans 1:20  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
Psalms 89:11  The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: as for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them.
Psalms 90:2  Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.

*Just a note:  The last picture is a smoker where our meat was smoked at a barbecue restaurant.