hiking, history and concerts!

i had one of the best weekends in a while! full of some awesome people and things i love to do! i had plans to see brett dennen in concert saturday night, go to lunch with my little and glittle sunday afternoon and see sugarland in concert sunday night - so already a lot of fun! buuut my friend annie calls me on saturday morning and we decided to go to harpers ferry, wv for the day! i'd been wanting to go for a while for the history and for a lonnnng time as the appalachian trail headquarters is also in harpers ferry. so it was a faaaaabulous day - mid 80s and sunny.  and it was nice to get out of dc and play in nature!

so of course i was going to harpers ferry for the history - my love of the civil war. now the john brown raid on the harpers ferry armory is quite connected to the all the events leading up to the cause of the civil war and harpers ferry has some interesting civil war history - a small battle and it was a key position for both union/confederate troops and it changed hands a few times and when west virginia was created it was a part of it. so my historydorkness was in full force! and luckily annie had been to harpers ferry a bunch of times for work so she knew all the fun things and facts and could get just as excited as i could! here is the replica armory - the original one was destroyed during the civil war but going to all of the national park sites was fun - they have a bunch of cute little exhibits in historic harpers ferry. and we listened to a civil war solider speak about the battle and walked along the canal and i just really enjoyed it!

so the other reason why i was super stoked to go to harpers ferry was the appalachian trail goes through harpers ferry and it is the appalachian trail conservancy headquarters! and with my life goal to hike all 2170 miles it was great to see the headquarters! and i got to talk to a few people hiking the whole trail this summer and the two people working were great! we chatted about the AT in new jersey and i LOVED it!

yay appalachian trail!! 

the conservancy is about a mile north of town and it was a great walk but YAY!

annie and i at the headquarters!

annie and i hiking the appalachian trail! it was her first time hiking on it! and now i can add west virginia to my bits hiked - granted it was only about a mile...

so after an amazing sunny day full of hiking and history i went into the district to meet up with two of my friends to see brett dennen at the 930 club! now i didn't really know brett dennen but it sounded like a fun night when my friend asked me about it and well why not! but brett dennen was incredible and he picked up a new fan after saturday night! the show was a blast and so much fun! we went to a great bar down the street from the 930 the american ice - which was this great little place with amazing beer and great food - very limited menu but great southern food! and after the concert we went to a few bars and it was a fabulous night!

                                                                                       on sunday i headed to baltimore to see my fabulous little and glittle for lunch! it was great to see them both and catch up and just have some zta family loving! i love that i've become closer to both of them since graduation and me moving back to the states. i've been down to baltimore a few times to see them both and little's bachelorette and wedding fun! so we spent a few hours talking about life, grad school, love, work, boys and everything in between! 

and then after lunch i went to meet a blog/twitter friend amanda! i've been reading her blogs for a while (she no longer blogs) and we've been twitter friends for a while too and thanks to the amazing internet this little meet up happened. amanda tweeted about wanting to see sugarland and i'd been trying to get someone to go with me and was honestly thinking about going by myself. amanda tweeted to see if anyone wanted to go and well it seemed perfect! we'd been trying to meet for a while so this was a great way to meet up! and we had a great time - it felt like catching up with an old friend and the night was spectacular!

matt nathanson and little big town opened for sugarland and we had lawn seats and were able to get right in the front center of lawn so that was fabulous! and i love matt nathanson - i wished he had played more and some of his older stuff i listened to. and little big town was fab! there is just something amazing about lawn seats in a summer country concert! i just wish i had my cowboy hat!

annnnd then sugarland came out and they were faaaaaabulous! jennifer nettles has one amazing voice and sugarland puts on a great show! i was singing and dancing the whole time - but not like super drunk mom who kept trying to dance on the sidewalk in front of us and must have been told eleventy-billion times to get off the sidewalk by event staff. but they played all their great songs - and hearing "little miss" live well - it brought me to tears. when this song first came out this fall i was singing along in the car one day and just broke down singing along and well hearing it live pretty much did the same thing.  but they were definitely having a blast up there and they did a few covers and had fun at the end doing "the end of the world" with matt nathanson and little big town! so it was a fabulous night and it was great to finally meet another blog friend!

so life this week has been good - super crazy at work but loving it. and got to see a college friend for dinner last night so that was fun and just looking forward to the long weekend and the bachelorette party for a girl i rowed with in college and amy & jeanne are coming into town and hopefully doing something outdoorsy on monday. i need to enjoy some sunshine and trees! and i can't believe it is wednesday night already! ahhhhhhh - time is flying by!