Vacation: Day #1

Today started with devotions early in the morning.  Thanking the Lord for such a gorgeous day and for providing some respite from our jobs.

 

We arrived in downtown Pittsburgh late morning.  We enjoyed the weather, the waterfall, and the river view. 

I really need some SUN on those legs!!!

We saw the Pirates vs. Red Sox at PNC Park.  Great game, even if they lost.  Keith scored several autographs.  (not surprising) 

Keith had enough gift cards to almost pay for a Neil Walker jersey.  He had to pay $15 out of pocket.  SAWEET! 

This game and the jersey were on his list of “want really bad’s” this year so it made me feel really good to see it happen.  He also got to see one of his favorite Red Sox players hit a homer into the river… thankfully via the foul line. 

 

We rounded out the day enjoying dinner with the Zom’s.  Not bad for day #1 of our vacation. 

Short Hike but Very Enjoyable

Keith, Jill, Joelle and I hit Hartwood Acres this morning.  We let Joelle use our GPS to do some geocaching.  She caught on pretty quickly.  Then we followed the red and white dot trail for a while, followed by the #1 and #2 trails before finishing out the hike.  I’m so blessed to have people around me who want to hike alongside of me.  Yay!  I so enjoyed it!

I’ve concluded that I need to shop for some much more attractive hiking gear.  Hmmmm…

Saturday’s Savings & Meal Plan

Grabbed a few good deals this evening at Giant Eagle and Walmart.  Could have grabbed Colgate at Rite Aid and actually made a few bucks on it, but I chose to pass on Rite Aid this week. 

 

2 Boxes of Snuggle Fabric Softener Sheets: (40 count) $.50 each.  Not bad!

 

2 bottles of Xtra laundry detergent (28 load):  $.99 each.  This isn’t my favorite laundry detergent, but it’s good to have on hand.  I can use it as a back up in case I run out (not likely to happen any time soon) or to wash utility items such as rugs, rags, horse blankets, etc.

 

4 packs of Ballpark Beef Bun-length hotdogs: $1.34 each.  Not bad!

 

10 boxes of GE Pasta:  $.90 each + extra $.10 fuel perks which will add up to $3 savings bringing the price of the pasta down to a total of $.60 each.  Not bad! 

 

2 packs of gum:  $.28 each – sometimes I get it for free, but this is still a good deal. 

 

2 Three Musketeers bars:  $.25 each.  Not bad!  Keith will enjoy them!

 

14 Bags of Iams catfood (1.8 pounds): $1.67 each.  I usually pay $25 for one 14 pound bag.  My coupons were all worth $3 each, bringing this out to $23.38 for 25.2 pounds.  If you do the math, I usually pay $1.78/pound, but today I got it for $.93/pound a savings of $.85/pound.  Yee haw!!!

 

Meals

No big plans.  We are on vacation, though not actually at the tropical paradise.  We are home.  We hope to take a few day-trips and just enjoy being home and free from work.  So…  I’ll plan meals on the spur of the moment this week.  One things for sure… we definitely have PASTA and HOT DOGS if we need them.

Have a great week!

NCT–Revisited

Had an AWESOME hike last night with Tammi.  The North Country Trail should know us well by now; although, we rarely hit the same portion more than once.  I love this trail.  It’s very well kept and fairly easy to travel. 

We hoofed it for a flat 2 hours and covered a good 4.62 miles as per the GPS.  This was an evening hike, so it was a race against the clock.  Of course we always dilly-dally on the way.  We gawk at things in the woods and water.  There was a blue heron hunting his dinner.  I wonder if he caught anything.  We admired the dam and spillway and took note of fishermen along the way. 

The turn-around point at about 7:30PM was under the 422 Bridge, where the trail actually travels UNDER it.  That’s neat!  We saw some bats flitting around down there.  It’s always an adventure.  I cannot wait to go again!!!  Hiking makes me feel SO GOOD!  I cannot wait for vacation to start so I can hike some more. 

The Story Behind "I Refuse" by Josh Wilson

Sanctus Real - Lead Me

Sanctus Real - The Story Behind: Lead Me

Another Couple of Miles

Tammi and I hit the North Country Trail again this morning.  We went 1.8 miles out and then back-tracked.  We are up to 23.6 miles of our 200 mile challenge.  No worries… when the fall arrives, we will likely pound out much longer hikes.  The weather was superb.  It was sunny; but we were mostly under the cover of trees.   The first and last portion was well maintained, recently trimmed.  In between the grass was high, but we didn’t have any trouble following the blue-dots.  Some of the terrain was muddy.  Overall, it felt like a very easy hike today.  I’m already itching to get back out for another adventure. 

Next year I’m going to track my total miles for all hikes…

Harrison Hills Park

This park is located in Freeport.  Oh wow… a treasure that took entirely too long for us to find!  I can’t wait to go back!

There is a 5-mile trail that loops around the perimeter of the park.  There are voluminous trails that wind through and intertwine with one another all over the park.  The Boy Scouts have done a fantastic job with trail signs and marking. 

The park is also rich with geocaches.  We found 5 or 6 of the traditional ones.  We didn’t even have time to tackle the multi-caches.  One of them was not far off the Rachel Carson Trail, past a really cool waterfall, and in a small cave-like area. 

 

We walked the creek-bed down down down the hill until we found the tiny cave.  The picture above is Keith jumping from one side to the other across the creek.  Notice the ammo box… that’s the cache!  He’s going to put it back where we found it. 

A little ways further we happened upon the “look-out” area.  We spotted a couple of osprey hunting.  The coolest part was that we were looking down on them.  The river is WAY down there! 

We hiked for 4 1/2 hours up and down hills, over creeks, through the woods, all over the place.  It was grand!  What an awesome day of hiking! 

We started hiking about a year ago.  I’m so glad that it’s something we both enjoy and have stuck with.  It really is good for the mind, body, and soul.