Travels and Returns

First off: the Dayton area was hit with at least two tornadoes last night. We slept through it, and have power today. But a lot of people are dealing with chaos this morning. The tornadoes touched down in, and swept across, a very populated area. I don't know much about it just yet, other than the town where we had made an offer on a house before winding up where we are... their highschool lost it's roof. Just hit me because it's very close to home. I don't know if we would have been awakened by sirens. I suspect many in the area were not. 

I'd planned a post for today about something personal, but I'm putting that off. Just going to dwell on family and pretty photos today. I took the Little Man over to North Carolina to spend a couple of weeks with my Dad. On the way there, for a break from the ten hours of driving, we stopped and hiked a little of the Appalachian Trail. He's inspired, and already talking about wanting to spend some serious time on the trail when he gets older. 

Fantastic views from this section near Bastian VA

Round the bend and vanishing

The Dude is rarely happy to have his photo taken.

The Little Man on the AT. This section of the trail is amazing, and a little dizzying.

I spent a day with Dad before heading back to Ohio. He asked what I wanted to see, and I said the beach! so we drove out trying to catch the sunrise over the Atlantic. It was a bit too hazy to get the full effect, but the light was downright awe inspiring, and we were on the beach early enough to beat the holiday crowds. We spent a few hours there, occupying ourselves with a friendly competition to collect trash. Dad won that round! 

Just after sunrise looking over Topsail Beach, NC

Dad and the Little Man with trash sacks, seeing who can get the most.

This section of ocean is relatively placid to what I'm used to.

Brown Pelicans. Weirdly, there were no gulls on this beach. It felt unnatural.

The trip home was great. I'll share more about it tomorrow - only so many photos I want to jam into one post, and I have so many good ones from this trip! 

Ok, one more. Unedited. Just.. that light!