more new jersey

   it was a busy busy last few days in nj! saturday was twin's wedding shower. it was a wonderful shower and it was great to see her whole family and meet most of her cousins and everyone. it all went smoothly and it was so relaxed. her mom & sister were wonderful as always and i can't wait until her wedding on august 18th! it is going to be so much fun! 

twin & i at her shower

visitors center

and since i've gotten my national park passport back in april ive been trying to get as many stamps as possible. i've had a goal to go to all 390 sites administered by the national park service and this is just making it more fun. so there are a few national park sites close to where i grew up and a few i've been to multiple times while others have been missed. so a few years ago i went to morristown and the washington headquarters national historic site - gw spent a winter during the revolutionary war here. and the continental army stayed at jockey hollow a few miles away so saturday after twin's shower i went to jockey hollow and got some stamps and learned about the harsh winter of 1779-1780 for the army. there is a ton of revolutionary war history by where i grew up and i have a goal to go see more of it!

replica cabins at jockey hollow

but my big fun this weekend was on sunday! twin and i made plans last week to go hiking on sunday with andy. we decided to go to my favorite area - the delaware water gap. which is also a national recreation area! (so more stamps!!) and i love to hike here and the area is just so pretty. and the hike we did goes to my favorite place in nj - the top of mt. tammany! we decided to do a combined hike and do mt. tammany and then go up to sunfish pond so in total we hiked 11.5 miles. and yes it was the most physical thing i've done since november 14th when i broke myself. but hey it made me feel a little more confident that i can run a half this fall because hiking 11.5 miles is similar to running 13.1 right? but it was a wonderful day out in the mountains with my best friend and her fiance and my favorite place! and my knee felt good - especially with wearing my brace for 11.5 miles and i wore the sleeve for the first time to see if it would reduce rubbing and it did which was nice. but taking it off when we got to the car was magical! but an absolutely wonderful day hiking!

with my national park passport excited about my delaware water gap stamp and the appalachian trail stamp as it runs through the area too! really i was ecstatic about the appalachian trail stamp!

view from the summit of mt. tammany- hello delaware river and pennsylvania on the other side!

heather & andy - he proposed on mt. tammany!

twin & i -  and my super sexy knee brace! 

sunfish pond - a glacial pond along the appalachian trail - it is a historic landmark!

so i'm now in the philly airport waiting for my flight back to charleston! yay! i'm going back! but only for 40 hours. i get in monday at noon and i'm flying out wednesday morning at 6am for my next conference which is in philly. i know - i just need to go home for a few hours, sleep twice in my own bed, switch clothes and everything. i am so excited! plus my camping gear needs to stop traveling around the country. but it is going to be a crazy week - my second  interview last week went well for school 1 so keep your fingers crossed! i should know in a few days about it. but i have an interview at school 2 on thursday morning. so i'm getting to philly wednesday morning - going to training because it is a new conference for me, driving home wednesday night (good thing i'm closeish to philly), interview thursday am, and then directly to philly for the conference where i'll be working 8am-11pm thursday to sunday. then flying back to charleston sunday night!

 hope you have a good week!