River Park North Walkies!

"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better."--Albert Einstein

Greenville is a good town if you’re  a college student, if you’re in the medical field or a police officer. If you’re an alumni who has loved her time at ECU, graduated, moved on and seen more of the world and now finds herself back in Greenville… well you make the most of it. River Park North is an unexpected oasis in this student oriented town. It is located near the airport aka in the middle of nowhere, but just in case you want a crazy night on the town it’s next to the local bingo establishment. I digress.

I found this park 1 month before I graduated from ECU in 2011 and subsequently forgot about it. I’m super glad I was reminded of it and got to spend time there recently. Since moving back, I’ve been twice with Will and Atlas and it was so worth it based solely on how happy it made our fluffy boy, not to mention us. We love hiking and Atlas was born for walkies so it was the perfect day trip that was only a 5 minute drive away from our house. 

The park isn’t in the best part of town, but it is extremely well-maintained, staffed and everyone who goes there are families. There are kayaks and paddleboat you can rent, which is absolutely going to happen when it gets warm. You can fish and go hiking on lots of different trails. The cool thing is that if you have cut fishing line they have special recycling tubes so it doesn’t get caught in the wildlife or stuck in the regular trash that ends up in the oceans. We went on a relatively warm day and walked on the long trail along the 2 lakes and through the swamp land with lots of beautiful places to take pictures. There are even playgrounds for kids and a nature center for educational purposes. 

The mosquitos get really bad if you go on the dirt paths off the main loop, which is exactly what we did. They lulled us in to a false sense of security by waiting until we were 5 minutes in to our walk on this trail to start attacking us ruthlessly and stealing our blood. At this point, Atlas was attacked by a bee that was on the ground and got stung on his paw. So while we were under siege we had to carry a 55lb upset dog. Luckily his paw didn’t swell up and he quickly forgot it ever happened. Minus the bug invasions it is the perfect place to wear out your pup!

Just in case all of that isn’t enough we ran around in a few of the fields that overlook the playground and one of the lakes. It would be the perfect place to have an off leash dog park…just saying. The next time we go we’re going to take advantage of one of the shelters with small grills installed. It’s pretty much the perfect place to spend the day if you like being outside. We’ve only been twice and had a lot of fun minus the bee sting and mosquitos, but now that it’s colder it is absolutely perfect for family shenanigans. Bring it on! 

"Just living is not enough...one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower."--Hans Christian Anderson

Hiking First Landing State Park

"I am unbore-able in the great outdoors." --P.J O'Rourke

When you think of Virginia Beach no one has ever said "Oh my goodness that's such a fantastic place to hike!" If someone had said that to me a few weeks ago I would've thought they had a few screws loose. A week ago my boyfriend, puppy (Atlas) and I discovered the glorious, beautiful, and slightly confusing First Landing State Park.

First Landing is located near the Oceanfront area, but away from the insanity of the tourist attractions near the boardwalk. How I have never been there before still blows my mind, but I am beyond happy we discovered it recently. My dog Atlas is 50% border collie, 25% lab, and 25% miniature pinscher. Needless to say he is one insanely cute, smart, hyper, goofy boy. He is also born for walkies. We walk in a lot in neighborhoods near us, at Mt Trashmore and on the beach when it's not too hot, but none of those places are scenic.

Will and I were cruising around the internet one day and came across the website for First Landing State Park. We realized we had never been there before so we decided to take Atlas hiking on our day off. It was one of the best things we've done as a family. There are about a dozen trails you can take depending on what you want to see and the length you want to go. Many of them meet up so if you get tired of one you can switch another!

We took Long Creek Trail, which we thought was a 4 mile loop. Turns out we read the super tiny map they gave us wrong so it was not a loop, but could be if we transferred to another trail...which we had already passed 2 miles ago by the time we realized what had happened. Moving on.

The trails aren't marked too well as far as knowing which trail you're taking, but it's pretty easy to find your way around, plus there's bound to be a fellow hiker you can ask along the way. Back to Long Creek Trail. We started out walking up a small road to the entrance and began our hike in a very wooded area. Atlas had never really seen much forest so he was a sniffing fiend. He just trotted along like he was the happiest puppy ever, which it's pretty safe to say that he was.

I have a feeling this trail is going to be our absolute favorite. Some trails only see the beach or forest. This trail took us through swamp, wetlands, beaches, forest, and even a small meadow. We got to see tons of wildlife while we were out there and met a lot of nice hikers who let their dogs meet ours. By the end of it all even Atlas was tired, which is a feat in itself.

When we finally found the trail head again we were exhausted. We had explored new places, Atlas had the best walk ever, we were starving, and Atlas didn't even want to walk anymore. Will decided to give our poor dog a break since we gave him the longest walk he's ever had and carried him partway down the hill. Atlas definitely has us trained well ;-)

First Landing is also super cheap! As a Virginia resident it's only $5. I think for out of owners it's $10 and there's also campgrounds! It's a super neat place that I can't wait to explore more!

"Marry an outdoors woman. Then if you throw her out into the yard on a cold night, she can still survive."--W.C Fields

Road Trip Part 2-- Hills, Horses, and Terror

“What you’ve done becomes the judge of what you’re going to do – especially in other people’s minds. When you’re traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don’t have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.”--William Least Heat

Learning to drive a manual is a traumatic, terrifying, and stressful event. For the driver that is multiplied by 30489903486... approximately. Not sure how the rest of the world felt, but Sarah and I were strangely apprehensive we I got behind the wheel. I was used to traffic patterns by now so that wasn't too terrifying. Reversing I can do perfectly. So if I had driven the entire time backwards we would've been golden besides a really stiff next from looking behind me. Too bad I'm 99.99% sure that's illegal. After Sarah and I dined and explored the castle I got behind the wheel for my first lesson. The castle was located in the middle of nowhere and there was a road nearby that didn't have a lot of traffic.

For those of you who have never driven manual before you're about to get a glimpse into a whole new world of driving. Getting into first gear... or I should attempting to get into first gear awakened some sort of weird laughing terrorized animal inside of me. As I tried to shift into first gear after backing up flawlessly I had a slightly inflated ego. Sarah told me to give the car more gas than it needed and ease off the clutch. Normal people probably would've done something.. well... normal. Me being me took this as floor it and then jerk of the clutch and realize this was dumb halfway through and then pump the clutch in a panic. It resulted in 1. a jerking motion of the car similar to what I think getting rammed from behind by a rhino would feel like. and 2. giving Sarah whiplash I the car jerked backwards and forwards and her seatbelt locked with each jerk. As it did this, every jerk forward resulted in her saying "nope. nope. nope. nope. nope"

It looked something like this... but picture it in a car not my room.

It's an attractive video I know... but I think I deserve credit for pretending I was driving and almost knocking myself out on my own knees just for this reenactment.

I managed to get it into first and roll down the road at a whopping 5mph. Watch out Scotland I'm coming for you... if I can ever get it into second gear.

I stalled out quite a few times and Sarah about died laughing at me panic and yell at the car and then laugh at myself. I got pretty confident and decided to roll my bad self and awesome skills into the street because I was ready for a quest. I rolled to a stop and managed to stall out. SHOCK. Then I accidentally gave the car too much gas, peeled out of the gravel entranceway spewing gravel everywhere and screeched into the street with minimal jerking. Sarah's reaction was nervous laughing and something resembling this face:

Poor girl...

Once I got out of 2nd I was golden. UNTIL... DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNN... we reached the hill of doom. Steep slopes are terrifying. I know it may seem like I'm throwing that word out there like a pro baseball player on steroids, but yeesh... I tried will all my might to get up that hill as the stoplight turned green. Little did I know the hill had it out for me and wanted to humiliate me. As I was swiftly going backwards down the hill trying to get it into first a van filled with guys pulls up behind expecting us to have the ability to oh you know DRIVE.... They quickly realized I was in distress.. well I'm sure the hazard lights Sarah always subtlely turned on when I got stuck gave them a clue... I just couldn't get up the hill. We had to get out of the car and do a walk of shame around the car so Sarah could drive. Needless to say that was the end of my lesson for the day.

The next day we booked a horseback riding trip in the Trossachs. I actually drove there and didn't kill anyone or thing... except a small curb but it deserved it anyway for getting in my way. The gps saved our lives many a time but I think it wanted to test us that day and see what we were made of. It told us to turn down a dirt road, so we obliged. We ended up 2 miles down a sheep pasture looking at a severe no trespassing sign... We decided to turn around. Quickly. I managed to avoid the sheep that had gradually begun to come towards our car in a creepy manner. Yes sheep can walk creepily. Just go to Scotland and walk into a field. You'll understand.

After getting passed by approximately 20945786 cars since we were driving at a speed that rivaled a blind grandmother snail we arrived at the horseback riding farm only to find the other cars that had passed us had also decided to go for a ride.

We got geared up and situated on our horses. I had a rather chilled out horse named Mitch and Sarah had a squat fiesty horse with a butt that rivals Beyonce's named Elby. The trip started out well as most seem to do. It got slightly more adventurous as we went along. Sarah is pretty much an expert rider and I've only ever been on a horse once before this. We were led in a line throughout the fields and countryside and even into the woods. My horse was the SLOWEST horse of all time. The PONY.... not horse, but a pony that was behind me literally had its head stuck up my horse's butt and would let out an exasperated sigh every few minutes. Mitch was unaffected and refused to go slower than death no matter now many times I kicked him in the side as you're supposed to do to make them go faster. The girls leading us described him as leisurely. Sarah lucked out and got the me equivalent of a horse that wanted to run ahead of everyone and jump around and play in a speedy fashion. I got the porker who likes to stand in the stable all day. I made do. I eventually got him to go faster, but as revenge he would jerk to a stop and uproot bushes that had poisonous flowers... Smart horse... So there I was trying to make my horse stop eating, stay in the saddle, make my horse move forward by twisting its head away from the bushes (which is HARD. Horses mean bussiness and are not weak) while kicking him to go faster while getting yelled at for not keeping the massive fatty from eating the entire time. He would try and veer towards bushes and it took everything I could do to keep him with the group.

We stopped to take pictures with Lake Menteith in the background. It's the only lake in Scotland instead of a loch. It was named as an insult after the man who betrayed William Wallace.

You may be wondering why my horse is leaning to the side like a drunken sailor... I have no idea. You may also be wondering about his emo hairstyle, but the real wonder ladies and gentlemen is his HUGE moustache that is hard to see from this picture. Let's just say my horse seems to be an emo version of Wyatt Earp. Google him. You won't be disappointed.






The rest of the ride was absolutely amazing apart from me attempting to wrestle a horse 5 times my size away from food and a very precarious ledge that my horse liked to trip on, which terrified me.

After we dismounted and got back in the car we made the drive to Glen Coe! We had planned to do a walk around Loch Lochan and in the mountains there. The drive was amazing and extremely eventful. We stopped at a rest stop to get some lunch and snacks and discovered that someone had the weirdest pet ever. We walked in to find a GOOSE on a leash lapping up water from a bowl like a dog. I couldn't make that up if I tried. I swear Sarah and I need our own tv show because stuff like that is the norm when we hang out.

On the way I was driving for the first time doing a long distance haul... A curb from hell came out of nowhere, meanwhile Sarah was munching on a new bag of cheeseballs. I may or may not have hit the curb really hard causing the entire car to bounce which then caused Sarah to yell and throw the entire bag of cheeseballs in the air making it rain delicious balls of cheese all over the car. We were still finding them even on the last day of our trip.

We FINALLY saw a shaggy cow. We had been looking for them and as I was driving I looked over and yelled... YAKS! Not sure why I yelled that as they were clearly cows. Oops. We found the parking lot after driving through mountains for 30 minutes which was the best view I've ever had in my life. We took the Loch Lochan trail and went up a mountain trail and back down and around the Loch.

After walking around for a few hours we decided to make the drive back to the small town and find where the filming of Hagrid's hut was in the Prisoner of Azkaban. We again had the best view of all time, but it was slightly terrifying driving down the road peacefully to have a tour bus come out of nowhere and drive past like it was in the grand prix. Those drivers have nerves of steel.

We kept stopping to see views like these:

The last place we stopped had a large pile of rocks in a dome shape. Apparently it's a burial place of Kings. Personally I would feel shafted if I was a king and someone said "hmmm I know exactly where we're going to bury you! Under a large pile of rocks. But wait there's more! It's going to be a dome shape and will eventually be on the side of a highway. Enjoy the afterlife!"

No. Just no. Anyone who tries to bury me there will get haunted by me. You've been warned.


At this dome shaped tomb thing was a bridge near a creek. On top of this bridge was a very awkward guy who was making his mom take pictures of him "modeling" for facebook... Yes he actually said that to us. I was slightly embarrassed to be around this guy, who was probably about 20, and felt bad for his mom. It got even more awkward when he took off his shirt and told her to make sure she got a good muscle shot. Poor guy. Doomed for life.

We made sure we hiked to a very high up place to we could pretend we couldn't hear him trying to talk to us about his facebook modeling pictures and then enjoyed the scenery and laughed at him modeling more on the pile of rocks.

Later that day we were heading back to Edinburgh and were starving. We aren't the happiest people in the world when that happens... After attempting to go to Tesco in 3 diferent places to find out it was shut we finally found an ASDA. I have never been happier to go into a walmart owned building. On our way out of the parking lot we came to a stoplight. Luckily there was only one car around and they were behind us. Sarah had a lapse in judgment and forgot we had to drive on the left hand side of the road. We were halfway down the lane and I was yelling that it was the wrong side of the road. What does she do? She slams on the brakes, looks around and then looks at me with terrified eyes and then peels out and speeds down the lane to the roundabout where we almost cut the other car off and then we both freak out a little after we realized we were still alive... The guy in the car behind us had a perfect view of the entire shenanigans and even slowed down to watch us more. He pulled up beside of and his friend did this:

And mouthed "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" He probably thought we were really stupid British girls. Whoops.

Next friday there will be the last post about this trip! Come back and read it :)


“Adventure is a path. Real adventure – self-determined, self-motivated, often risky – forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind – and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white.”--Mark Jenkins

From Heaven on Earth to Hell... I mean Leeds.

"The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever." --Jacques Cousteau

The next day Lindsey and I ventured out to Howth. The first thing I saw as I walked towards Howth off of the train station was a giant shark. I took this as an indicator that the day was going to be pretty awesome.

As you can see I was pretty excited.

After I had my moment with the shark, Lindsey showed me the local seals. I was expecting something slightly smaller, but what I saw were seals of gigantic proportions.

Howth is really a fishing town that has a surprising amount of tourists. There are abbey ruins, a castle that we could not find to save our lives, and a really cool hiking mountain with a great view. We ventured up a very steep hill to see the abbey and I decided to Indiana Jones it and climb all over it. Sacrilege? Maybe, but it was still fun and the building is still standing... well let's just say I didn't cause it any harm. 

After we were done exploring there we decided to start the hike up the mountain. Halfway up I saw a rickety staircase leading down to a beach with mini caves, so of course we had to get down there and crawl in them.

Here I am getting attacked my spider webs.

And I survived without any mortal wounds to jump around in a different cave with Lindsey.

Back to the mountain we went! The weather held out on us long enough for us to get to the top and back and to get hopelessly lost on the way back down. How I can get lost when there was only one path to follow I will never know. The good things is we made it back in one piece!

After Howth we journeyed back to Skerries and I packed for my flight the next night. I arrived at the airport around 7pm for my flight. It was delayed by 30 min. This kick-started my lovely and adventurous night back to Leicester. I arrived in Leeds at 1130 thinking I was going to be picked up by the friend of a friend we had stayed with before departing to Dublin. After not returning my 5 calls, 2 voicemails, and 3 texts I figured that was a lost cause. When hearing from him an hour later and after yelling at him profusely I was on my own at the airport and in need of a hotel... I got the bus into town and arrived there at about 1230am. I followed the bus driver's instructions and walked 30 minutes to stay in the world's sketchiest hotel of all time for 4 hours to catch my 630am bus to Leicester. Needless to say I was not happy at all. 

To leave this post on a happy note below is a sign I saw in Howth...

 I swim... YIKES

"At the beach life is different. Time doesn't move hour to hour, but mood to moment. We live by the currents, plan by the tides, and follow the sun."--Unknown

Hadrian's Wall

For those of you who regularly read this... if there are any... I'm sorry I've been way too busy to update this. I will try to keep these weekly as best I can from now on.

Hadrian's Wall. Everyone has heard of it, but I'm pretty sure the majority of the world has no idea 1. how expansive it is and 2. how many more sites, forts, outposts, turrets, etc are associated with it.  On my trip (October 27-29) We visited around 7-9 different sites along the wall. We started, all 12 of us, at Arbeia. It was a fort along the wall and all that remains is the reconstructed gate and the outlines of the rooms around the area. This was no ordinary gate! Oh no. It was reconstructed and turned into a museum so you could go in it and see what it was like to be posted up there. We toured the barracks and got to see all of the different layouts that were possible, since no one really knows. How typical of archaeological sites!

We then ventured on to see a part of the wall that was built back to it's original height... upwards of 26-30 feet. If I was a Scottish barbarian I would be slightly discouraged... not to mention the archers waiting to shoot me while safely behind a stone wall and the spikes coming out of the ground that would have acted as barbed wire. Not exactly the most welcoming of sites, but today it is pretty cool!  The whole wall stretches 81 miles across England. We started at one end and made it about 40 miles inland, by car of course.  

The first night there, my friends Mike and Angelo took a night walk with me. Those of you back home may not realize what dark means until you go to North Umberland. When they say dark, they MEAN dark. I had to flash my camera to actually see if I was still on the road. It was something out of a horror movie, but with a better ending in my case. However, on our way back we were vocally attacked by a cow. We were walking along minding out own business and then Voldemort was reincarnated in this cow. It... moo-ed at us... but it was the most demonic moo it could possibly have uttered. Scared the living crap out of 2 men and then me. I have a weird feeling farmers up there secretly train their cattle and sheep to haunt passerby in the middle of the night. Must get a kick out of it.

After the excitement, we decided to walk back, but we couldn't help but stop and stare at the stars. I have never seen so many in my entire life. For the first time in my life, I saw a shooting star. There's just nothing like it.   So of course being the educated MA students that we are, we decided to lay down in the middle of the road to watch them. Unfortunately, someone was driving full speed down the road and we scrambled to jump into the ditch. I really wonder what the person in the car thought was going on. He saw us run from the road and then as he passed Angelo was waving like nothing had happened, I was halfway up a tree gripping on to it for dear life, and Mike was in the ditch with his butt in the air because fell over.... I'll just leave you with that mental image.

The next day was spent exploring more forts and then we walked along the wall for 5 miles. Seems like a simple enough task. Mother nature decided the steep hills and cliffs weren't enough for us archaeologists. She added some wind, rain, and extreme cold for us as well! The view was unimaginable. I wish my pictures did it justice. I will post a few but WOW. It is definitely not a site to miss if you ever get the chance. I hope to hike the entire wall one day! Yes, all 81 miles!  The walk was so wet that my shoes dyed my feet blue and yellow.... Yep, definitely wished I had listened to my Dad and brought along my hiking boots. Oops.

To get a little deeper.... Hiking the wall in those conditions, which was typical of Northern England, really put into perspective how it used to be not just manning the posts, but also what it was like to haul that much stone which was extremely heavy, that far. The hills there are no joke. It was a tough climb, definitely rewarding, but I couldn't imagine doing it over and over carrying literally tons of rocks. It gives you a whole new appreciation of the past. They were very dedicated to this project and it gives a whole new interpretation to putting blood, sweat, and tears into an undertaking.