Don't forget to look up and always look behind you...you never know what you're missing out on.

Union Grove is a beautiful old state park that often gets overlooked. These forgotten about spots are the ones that i love most..especially during this time of the year.

Friday evening Anita and I packed up our things and headed south on 29...just us. no men, no kids, no dogs. We had been waiting excitedly for this trip--our time to just get away, relax, and enjoy the outdoors together. We got the tent set up with no problem and started the fire. (note to all men: reading the instructions and putting up the tent in the order advised, really does help).

We pretty much had the park to ourselves..a couple in a camper on the other side of the campground and another pair of people in a tent a few spots down tucked back in the trees. Perfect!! We spent the evening just relaxing, laughing, and drinking by the fire. The park ranger was pretty cool (Power Ranger Matt), and he even killed 20 minutes or so with us by the fire before his shift was over and he left the park for the night. Somehow we ended up hanging out in the bathroom for a good portion of the night as well. not like anyone else was there...and plus, the shower stall was really comfy with that blue rubber floor mat, and late night bathroom conversation is always interesting...

We woke up around 6am to drizzling rain...that lingered for a few hours. We made the best of it and decided to just chill in the tent (what else could we really do). We successfully saved our journal that we wrote in over the course of the night before, and so stupidly left out by the fire when we went to bed. We sat there and laughed as we peeled wet pieces of paper apart from each other and read our scribbles and spread them all over our blankets to dry as we ate some awesome lemon poppy seed bread that Anita baked and brought with.

After laying around in the tent for awhile, Anita threw out the suggestion of putting on our tennis shoes and going for a walk despite the light drizzle. In about 5 minutes, we were out of the tent and on our way down the road with our pink bag as we started out on our journey through the day. We wandered slowly down the beautiful tree lined road throughout the park, stopping in every direction to look, take pictures, grab a new beer, and just enjoy everything around us...at our own pace. We walked on some of the trails even though they were wet early on in the morning... intrigued by all the dew drops. We stopped and sat in the middle of paths to take a break, take a pee, take a look around, take a picture together, or take a shot. The view was amazing no matter which way we looked, the weather was absolutely perfect, and the hours we spent together enjoying each others company was time well spent.

The early afternoon greeted us with two men, three boys, two beagles and another fantastic day and night with more exploring on the trails, fabulous food over the open fire, laying around in the middle of tall grasses, lots of laughs and lots of fun.

Click here to see some of the many photos we took over the weekend.