We partied it up in Atlantic City, NJ on New Years. I booked the Sheraton by the Convention Center, some couples massages at Harrah’s, dinner reservations at Izakaya and Old Homestead in the Borgata, and club tickets for NYE with champagne, open bar, etc. By the time the ball dropped we were actually sitting next to each other at slot machines. Haha. We had a good time but all the cigarette and cigar smoke made the trip difficult. I felt like I had smoked a carton after a few days just from secondhand smoke.

It was a beautiful weekend to be in DC. The weather was unseasonably warm as we made our way to The Wharf. The Anthem is a great venue and we actually managed to get rail spots. TBT was a solid show and we can’t wait to see them again. Before we left the next day I just had to Doordash some Federalist Pig to the hotel. Best decision ever! Nicole ordered some authentic Ethiopian food and it was solid too. It was nice having a Whole Foods across the street. Great location.

We decided we could get more mileage out of our Halloween costumes by attending Seacrets Halloween party. It was packed in there all night with 5 different party sections. We saw some pretty darn good costumes. We had fun but admittedly it was tiring.

We hit up Theatre Bizarre on its last weekend to get down with all the ghouls and goblins that call Michigan home. We didn’t get invited to the Fistatorium.. perhaps next year. Just an awesome, unique experience. We had a phenomenal breakfast/brunch at Dime Store while staying in downtown Detroit. We also managed to show up in a music video that was shot during Theatre Bizarre. See if you can spot us here=> Esham – Theatre Bizarre 2022

Tim, Stavros, and I left early Friday to head to Skyland. We tried to check-in early but the room wasn’t ready. We went downstairs to the bathrooms and changed into our hiking attire. The weather was beautiful as we made our way to Stony Man trailhead. We summited Stony Man then made our way back to the Appalachian Trail and hiked north a ways. We then turned off the AT onto Passamaquoddy Trail to head back towards the parking lot. This is a blue blaze trail that I would rate easy to moderate. After arriving back at the car about 3 hours after we started we headed back to Skyland to check-in. After getting our keys we went off in search of our room. The room was literally the best room we’ve ever gotten. It was a corner ground room that had a wide open view of Luray, VA. down in the valley. After dragging our stuff into the room, showering, etc. we head off to the dining room for an early dinner and some drinks.

Saturday morning we made our way down to Luray VFW for Shenandoah National Park Association’s Members Day celebration that started with Coffee, juice, and pastries followed by several presentations from a wide range of speakers from Park Rangers to members of the Associations board. There were raffles in between and I managed to score a couple books and a game. After a catered lunch we were on our way back to the lodge to prepare for the day’s hike.

We’ve hiked White Oak Canyon/Cedar Run trail before and knew it was a difficult hike clockwise but we didn’t mind. The weather was phenomenally perfect for hiking. The last time we hiked this trail it was raining all day. The last 3 miles of the hike we gained over 2,000ft of elevation. Equating to a speed of about 1 mile per hour. It’s a grueling section that isn’t for the faint at heart. It was almost dark when I finally made it back to the car about 10 minutes behind Tim & Stavros. We drive back to the lodge, get cleaned up, go have dinner, then all crash back in the room. We stayed up for a while enjoying the beautiful view from our porch and reminiscing about the weekends hikes.

In the morning after breakfast we made our way back towards the eastern shore. We stopped at Fisherman’s on Kent Island and had a late lunch before making our way home.