Nicole, Tim, and I left work early Friday and headed to Fisher’s Gap in Shenandoah National Park. We got on trail around dusk and hiked 2 miles to Rock Spring Hut where we bunked down for the night. The next morning we had breakfast and were off to summit Hawksbill Mountain, the tallest mountain in Shenandoah National Park at just over 4,000 ft. After the summit we went back down the other side to Skyline Drive. Crossing over Skyline we hopped on the Skyland~Big Meadows Horse Trail for 5 miles then onto the Rose River loop for another 1.8 miles while stopping for lunch along the river. Next we visited Dark Hollow Falls where we had a status meeting. We decided to end the hike early and see if we could get a lodge room for the night, and luckily we were able to do that. After checking in and showering we were off to Skyland for dinner and drinks. Another great time on the mountain with friends in the books.

Nicole and I had a great time at Jazzfest. The first night I ended up on Frenchman at a small jazz bar called Blue Nile. New Orleans is a colorful and friendly town, at least in my experience. There was tons of beautiful art on Royal. The oysters and crawfish etouffe were off the chain good on Bourbon. I thought we had good oysters up here on the shore but I’m not quite so certain now. We saw a ton of bands over the 4 day event including Jimmy Buffet, Luke Combs, Billy Strings, Zac Brown, Shovels & Rope, and many more.