A Weekend of Firsts

Once again, I have been slacking! A blog is a lot harder to keep up to date than I expected! This was supposed to be written typed and posted after LAST weekend (like a week ago), but I just never got to it. I had the fortunate opportunity to go camping and rock climbing (on a real rock) all in the same weekend! I have never done either of those things. When I was in high school I went on a white water rafting trip in West Virginia, but the girls weren't allowed to camp because the guys were. You know how high school is- girls and guys can't sleep in the same place. Anyhow, I had an awesome time! Other than it getting a little chilly at night, the weather was perfect; 70 on Saturday and 72 on Sunday! Greg, his friend Jonathan, and I woke up early Saturday morning and made the drive to Sand Rock, Alabama. That's not an actual town, but it is near Gadsden. We got one of the last campsites available, but it was by far the best one! It was farther from the road from the rest of the other sites, and it was pretty secluded. After everyone arrived we walked to the rocks to begin our climbing adventure. The other girl that was there, Beth, was brave enough to be the first one to climb. It was pretty crowded, so we had to wait for some "runs" to be open. After I watched Greg and his friends climb, I felt up for the challenge. The rock I climbed was supposed to be one of the easier routes, but I struggled! I didn't even get halfway up the rock before I had to come down. Needless to say it is much harder outside than in a gym! When the day was coming to an end we went back to the campsite, popped open a few beers, and chillaxed for the rest of the night. Greg prepared me for the cool weather at night, so I was quite comfortable sleeping. The wind blowing outside the tent made for a great, natural sound machine. Since the weather was so nice on Sunday, we decided to venture out and do some more climbing. And guess what? I actually made it up a rock!! Woohoo! I had a really great time and cannot wait to go back!!

Greg, all the way at the top!

I love sitting around a fire!

Even though this is one of the highest rocks to climb, it is one of the easier ones. Great for me!

New Hobby

When people ask me what my favorite hobby is I never know what to say. The first thing that comes to my mind is walking Duncan. Is that a hobby? The only other hobby I can think of is cooking; however, I don't do it enough to really consider it a true hobby. Welp, I think I have found a new hobby that I will get really into...rock climbing! I know it sounds crazy, but I went for the first time last Thursday and had a great time! I love the challenge of trying to figure out where to place your hands and feet. Now, I don't want you all to think that I am talking about climbing on an actual rock outside. I went to an indoor place called Stone Summit. It's actually the biggest indoor rock climbing facility in the country! There is such a sense of accomplishment when you get to the top of the wall. I love setting goals and then reaching them, even if they are really small. It's kind of like if you're running and you tell yourself, "Just one more minute," and then you run that last minute and you feel so good that you were able to do it. That's the feeling you get when you go rock climbing. I have also never had such an awesome workout! It works just about every muscle in your body, and you're not even doing it to get a work out; it's the total package. I think I'm going again this weekend and I'm pretty excited about it! Hopefully it is something I get really into, and then I can have a legitimate hobby!

Stone Summit. I climbed the walls to the far left. The walls in the middle are way too challenging!