On Monday we went to the Dallas Arboretum with Chris’ dad. I had never been so it was a nice experience. After being so used to Fairchild Gardens in Miami, it’s hard to get used to non-tropical plants. There are some nice tropicals such as this Pride of Barbados, but a lot of them are temperates. They also have a great test garden where they do try some of those tropicals like mandavilla and tropical hibiscus.

It was blazing hot and though we didn’t walk fast or far, we were sticking to our clothes pretty quickly. It was 107* for a high here on Monday. Yesterday it was about 12* cooler and though that was in the 90′s it was amazingly cooler. Today I think it is even cooler than that, but I haven’t set foot outside yet! I’ve been working on photos, playing with Zoe and I even took a phone call for a potential job interview! *insert nerves here*

I’ve been trying to read several trail journals of folks that we met along the way that are still out hiking. Sometimes I get a bit sad not being out there so it is fun to see where everyone else is and remember all of the places we were. I am still working on the first Trail Tales story…yes, I am slow. It’s amazing how much attention a 2 year old needs!

I did find a few things that were interesting on some trail journals. One is from a hiker we knew, Tin Tin. His post is here about life not being a white blazed trail. Good stuff. Also, Li’l Buddha’s post about the odd lifestyle of thru-hikers. He started in Key West back in January and he is walking the Eastern Continental Trail, a mish-mash of trails that sorta connect to each other and he is now in Canada on the International Appalachian Trail. He was already booking miles by the time we started so we were quite behind him. Reading his entries on the IAT has been very interesting!

Chris bought a lens mount for the reverse macro stuff I do so I will be able to do it a lot better. Right now I am just holding the lens to the camera and it can be very difficult. I have to hold my breath half the time in order to keep it in focus. I could use a tripod but I’m too lazy. I plan on taking a lot of these types of photos on our camping trip.

Happy Wednesday!