Flu shot for me next year! (post 1 of 2)

I recently returned to the land of the living after spending the better part of a week in bed with the flu. The "achy, can't get comfortable, feel like you just want to be put out of your misery" few days I spent under J.R.'s care were quite a humbling experience. Good news is, he makes the cut and even excels at taking care of the sickly:). I was never without water, tea, or bagel thins (thank you Jackie and Daddy) that of which seemed to be the only thing that appeared halfway appetizing. Best part is, he never felt in the slightest bit ill. I guess accompanying him to get that flu shot a few months ago would've been a smart move;)!

Prior to all of this, J.R. and I made the last minute decision to take advantage of the 3 day weekend our lovely presidents had afforded us, and drive down to TN to surprise my dad for his birthday. Incidentally, we didn't get there until about 10pm his birthday evening, but the look on his face when he saw Max clamber up the stairs to greet him was priceless. We'd drive nine hours for that any day Daddy!

On the drive down we always pass the Gauley River bridge, a welcomed break in the driving for us and our cooped up puppy. We usually take advantage of the wooden staircase that leads to the scenic overlook, and run Max up and down the stairs a few times to discard some of his energy.

 The sun was barely peaking out of the clouds after the rain--beautiful!

The next morning we forced ourselves to take our 6:30am alarm wake-up call seriously, got dressed, and headed out for an early hike in the Smokey Mountains. I have wanted to introduce J.R. to East Tennessee hiking for a long time now, and thought what better place to start than one of the Mt. Lecont trails. We started out at the Alum Cave trailhead, which I must mention was already packed by the time we got there around 8:30am! The sun was shining, and we were in temperatures we could hardly recognize. It was a beautiful day.

The trail is roughly 3 miles up to the cave, and another 3 miles hike will get you to Mt. Lecont. This time of year the cabins at the top are closed, but in the summer you can rent them and make an overnight trip of it. Luckily, we decided we weren't prepared to attempt Lecont (running out of water, not enough food), and headed back to the car after this. It wasn't long after we were driving home that I started to feel the flu coming on, and had I been still stuck on that trail....yikes!

 

 This will give you some perspective to the size of the place. It was extremely steep!

Snow on top!

We took some time to enjoy the sunshine on the way down...

Although I spent the rest of the weekend on the couch after this, it was so nice to get outdoors for a while. When we were packing our bags to leave, this is what I found...

Max is always especially sad to leave the extra attention/off-leash outside freedom he has at my dad's house:)