alabama

Each year, as the temperatures drop and days get shorter, we tend to, quite literally, make plans to hibernate for the winter. All the heavy blankets come out, the curtains get drawn, and we spend a few months focusing on projects at home. Usually, by mid-March, we are crawling in our skin ready to get out again. We live in Alabama, so generally spring comes early and the weather just begs for us to go explore!

One of the brief moments this spring where it wasn’t absurdly wet..So you know we hit the trail!

Somehow, 2019 did not get the memo. Is has been cold, dreary, rainy, and every combination of the three this spring, and we have definitely felt the effects in the form of a ” why don’t we stay in this weekend” funk. Don’t get us wrong, we enjoy the break (and our bank account loves it more), but it certainly feels like a hibernation that is out of our control.

Most of our hikes have looked like this. Eerie, damp, and great if you’re in a horror film!

Chris’s office recently moved to a location closer to where we live, and Angie finally got approved to work-at-home again after taking a promotion last year that required her to go back to the office for training. So we have been completely living it up as home-bodies despite our normal desire to get out and explore. We’ve at least taken advantage of the time at home to make some much needed improvements with a new dining room table and curio, plus some other updates in other rooms and lots of work done outside as well.

(We’re very proud to have a nice, adult looking dining room, indulge us in this one)

At some point during this pathetic excuse for spring, we decided to salvage what we could and got a membership at our local zoo. We absolutely love the zoo, but with so many other places we want to visit, we usually only make it over once a year to volunteer at their halloween event. It’s been a few years since we went as regular guests so we have really enjoyed seeing all the new expansions and exhibits. So between the zoo and a couple of small local hiking trails, we’ve managed to still enjoy being out and about without having to plan or cancel due to weather.

We even had a little staycation in March and hosted Angie’s parents for a few days of local tourism. We made a day trip to Atlanta to see the aquarium there, went to the zoo, and tried a few new restaurants around town. We had planned to get away to the mountains or beach, but the days we had off had terrible weather forecasts, so we knew it would be easier to stay home and do things strategically timed around the rain. It still worked out nicely, time with family is still a vacation, even if you aren’t going anywhere.

We got out of the state! If only for a few hours, it still counts!

Still, we are so excited to emerge from hibernation. It’s slowly coming, and thanks to a big trip in June, we hadn’t budgeted for much this spring anyway, so it hasn’t been a total loss. We aren’t usually big on travel during the summer months, but this year is most likely going to prove to be an exception, for no other reason than to catch up after this late start!

To say that we hibernate in winter is either a really accurate or really understated truth, and we’re too embarrassed to try to figure out which. When the temps start warming and the trees turn green again just awakens our need to get out like nothing else, and we absolutely love it. Since we like to pack in as much outdoor time as possible before it get unbearably hot (and in the south, IT WILL) we are always out and about this time of year, so long as our work schedules permit. So far this month we’ve been able to enjoy 2 amazing day trips in Alabama to state parks, to Oak Mountain and Cheaha State Parks. Admittedly, Alabama is lacking in state parks compared to some other states, and has very few national parks. But what we do have are definitely worth the trip.

*sniff sniff* smells like a good trail!

Oak Mountain is our closest state park, and we usually make a few day trips a year with the dog. This trip we decided to tackle a trail we haven’t been on, to see the King’s Chair overlook. Once we made it to the king’s chair, we decided it would be better to picnic at a spot a few hundred yards back down the trail. We packed a lunch, but unfortunately, we only grabbed one bottle of water. We forgot we had to share with the dog, so our little picnic was a bit of a bust, we didn’t each much since we wanted to conserve water, but the hike was all uphill to the king’s chair so we knew getting back would be a breeze. We still enjoyed the break and the view, and even had cell service!

Gotta love those semi-urban parks for their cell service!

The view was just as stunning as the overlook at the king’s chair, minus a few boulders and outcroppings. Plus we didn’t feel like we were in the way, which we have discovered is a terrible habit a lot of “day hikers” have at our local parks. We certainly understand you want to get your photos at the destination, but please, be courteous of others! In just our two trips this year, we’ve seen so many disrespectful tourists (or more likely locals). Folks guzzling beer with their coolers set out in the entirety of the “good spot”, selfie-ing for way too long (ex: omg, we gotta do one more but like THIS) despite others obviously wanting to get a photo, and walking straight through our remote operated shots like we’re just smiling and posing in that direction for nothing. We’ll just hope it was a case of being so excited by the view, that they forgot their good ‘ole southern manners. And since most of the time it’s not an issue, we certainly don’t let it hold us back!

This shot took us 10 minutes, because we had to wait for the right conditions (ie, people to move)

Our second picnic vista this year has been at Cheaha State Park, the location of the highest spot in AL. For most states, it’s only a baby mountain, but for Alabama it’s pretty impressive, and considering the park opened in 1933 and is still pretty remote, it’s really impressive that they have such great facilities. There’s a great restaurant, which we’ve had before, but this time we decided to pack a cooler and picnic lunch. And, because Angie insisted, a watermelon as well. We half-joked we should carry our watermelon out on the trail and offer it up to other hikers, but, it’s heavy, and although the trails at Cheaha aren’t very long, we decided against that. Plus the idea of sticky rinds stuffed into our backpack so we could pack-out our trash just seemed really awful… But it would have been hilarious! So instead, we found an old concrete bench secluded by one of the pavilions for a nice little picnic lunch. The grass was a little overgrown so we wound up sitting on the sturdy table instead of the bench, but it was such a nice spot, backed up to this amazing boulder, and just steps away from the car where we left the dog in the a/c to cool off after her hike.

Picnic, plus a watermelon? Angie says this is the best..Chris, well, he’s just glad the parking was close and he didn’t have to tote it very far

Both these parks are pretty close for us, within an hour or so drive, but we like to treat it as though we are really on a mini-vacation, rather than just a weekend drive. Sure, we could have only gone to the park for an hour or so and grabbed food from a drive through on the way over, but it makes it seem special when we plan ahead, pack a lunch and get away from everything for the day. Especially now when it’s not so hot you can’t enjoy a picnic. Though we’re pretty sure Angie would vote for a chilled watermelon on any hiking trip, regardless of the temp outside!

Roaming Crows

Two birds exploring the Southeast

Travel Hibernation

Picnic Hikes with a View in AL