This summer has been a different one for our family. My daughter took a job on her college campus for the summer, which meant that she didn’t come back home. With the rest of us going in different directions with work and life, knew it would take some intentionality to put time on the calendar and make sure we connected as a family. With this in mind, and with covid still making travel unpredictable we decided to keep our family vacations to shorter trips interspersed through the summer, and a little closer to home. I love the mountains, so one of these trips included a trip up to explore Chimney Rock, Lake Lure, and Morganton in NC. My gang is partial to having plenty of “relax” time mixed in with activity. So while we absolutely took advantage of the hiking opportunities that were available to us, we also explored coffee shops and sweet treats as well as made smores in the fire pit and soaked in the hot tub at our sweet little Air B&B. It was a good break from life and the long weekend had something for everyone!