Summer is almost here!

This is my favorite time of year. I love it when the days start to get longer... I'm wearing lighter jackets...and the fruit stand on Caulks Hill Road is open. It also reminds me that I need to start planning what we want to do for summer. Forget the new year, I make resolutions for the summertime. I feel like summer is such a short time of year, filled with weddings, and visits to family, and yard work. I enjoy two out of three of those, but it feels like your summer is always planned for you and that trip you wanted to take to Chicago gets lost in the shuffle. Then September rolls around (aka football season) and weekends are filled with college gameday and NFL Sunday. So this year, I'm going to make summer time plans and stick with them! I put up a list on the sidebar for stuff I want to do this summer. Last summer we talked about going to Kentucky Lake for a weekend and renting a houseboat, but never did it. I still have not been to the Hermann wineries or even Chicago since I've lived in St. Louis. Easy road trips! So this year, I'm going to get it together and plan stuff and do it!

Another thing I've been wanting to do is to find a place to go hiking. I mean some place other than the Katy Trail. I want to actually climb and not just walk. When I was in Australia we were there over a weekend and had some time to kill. So why not climb a little mountain? It was a place called Devils Peak (highest peak in picture on left) and was in Quorn, South Australia. Pronounced like "Corn" and there was a rock with "Quornies Rule" spray painted on it. Why didn't I take a picture of it, I ask myself that everyday. Sigh. Anyway, it was quite a hike...took us about an hour to get to the top...and it was a beautiful site. It was a bit hazy out, but we could just barely see the ocean on one side and the country with mountain goats and cows on the other. I think I did pretty good. It was tough for a while (taking a break in pic on the right) and I wanted to quit, but I had to see the view from the top.



I used the "I wanna take a picture" excuse for mini breaks on the way up...




Views from the top!