Mt. Magazine

A couple months ago James and I decided we should try to take a short getaway trip over our Christmas break.  Since we don't have family nearby, our only chance to do something like this is when we're in AR and Jesse can stay with his grandparents.  This was our first time to get away together since Jesse was born, and it was the first time I had been away from Jesse for more than about 12 hours.  I definitely came back feeling refreshed and recharged, and Jesse barely knew we were gone because he was having the time of his life with Nana and Pop and Grandmama and Grandpa (he got one night with each set of grandparents).

We left Fayetteville for Mt. Magazine on the Friday after Christmas and came back on Sunday.  Friday morning we got a call from the lodge and were told that we should reconsider coming if we didn't have 4-wheel drive, because the mountain had gotten quite a bit of snow and the roads were bad.  Fortunately my Dad has 4-wheel drive and he graciously offered to exchange vehicles for the weekend.  The 2-hour drive there was beautiful and the higher we got up the mountain, the more snow there was.  It was also so foggy that we couldn't see down into the valley at all.  I think it is ironic that we experienced our first snow of the season in Arkansas and not Chicago (come on Chicago, we would like at least one good snow this year!!!).

I didn't get a ton of pictures because the camera batteries died, but here are a few.  We had such a nice and relaxing time, just hanging out, reading books, watching movies, eating lots of food at the lodge restaurant (which has an awesome view), and driving around the mountain.  It was perfect because we came here exactly 5 years ago (the first year we were married) and had a very similar experience with all the snow and fog.  

Here is the view from our room when we arrived.  We couldn't see anything!



Headed to dinner the first night, we snatched a picture in the elevator's mirror.

This is the view the next morning from our balcony.

We set off on a short hike Saturday morning, but didn't get very far due to some foot issues I was having.  We still managed to get a few pictures of some of the pretty ice on the trees.

Here we are atop one of the overlooks.  This is when the batteries died.