The Best-Laid Plans

We got up at 6:00 this morning with every intention of going hiking, only to hear the persistent drip of raindrops outside the window. We hit snooze for an hour, hoping it would clear up. It didn't. So we decided to persist anyway, excited about a trail described in Day and Overnight Hikes in Shenandoah National Park which included a number of falls and a pioneer cemetery. The scenery driving out there was beautiful:

...but unfortunately, the trail was closed, due to "search and rescue activities." Eek. So we headed to Skyline Drive, to more predictable Shenandoah territory, but hadn't factored in how much a) colder and b) foggier it would be up there. So while it would have been one thing to soldier on in the cold and the rain to glimpse some amazing scenery, what we saw instead was this:

But by this time we were hungry, so we broke out the lunch we had hastily packed: what Matt started calling Salt Soup, due to the excessive amount of seasoning he felt I put into it (though he later ate his words, along with a delicious pot of soup!). Here's what we used:

Handful of dried mushrooms

Small handful sun-dried tomatoes

Spoonful each of thyme, onion powder, and salt

Sprinkle of pepper

Large handful whole-wheat egg noodles

We filled up our camping pan with water and lit our gas-powered cookstove. It took about ten minutes to come to a boil and was ready in probably five more. We ate it out of the pan and it was DELICIOUS! Good enough for home, even. So now we're excited to create even more delicious backpacking foods, and to that end we recently purchased a dehydrator off of Craigslist so we can dry fruits and vegetables to take on the trail.

After that we stopped in for a wine tasting at a local winery, then came home and walked to Barnes & Noble--to which one of my very nearest and dearest, Holly, had just mailed me a birthday gift certificate. (THANK YOU and YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE!) I picked up Our Bodies, Ourselves--a women's health classic that I should have had a long time ago, which will make a respectable addition to my midwifery library. We also picked up a book on container gardening which will hopefully shed some light onto my wilty basil!