Adventure: Year 40 in anticipation

After thirty nine years circling the sun on this fabulous blue and green planet, I've learned a few things. You could fill volumes upon volumes with the things I don't know, but, all things considered, I figure feeling pretty certain about a few things is a decent start to some eventual semblance of wisdom.

One thing I know with absolute certainty is my life is a happier more content life with I am in motion. I mean this in every sense. Things are best for me when I'm planning, hustling, playing, thinking, learning, running, jumping, doing. Either my mind or my body needs to be busy. For a good deal of my life, I found this a tad frustrating and more than a tad exhausting. The older I get, the more I embrace it as a gift.

I share this in order to explain why I have declared 2019 "The Year of Adventure". If you've read my earlier blogs, you might realize that I define adventure very broadly. For me, adventure is exploring everything around me. It can be a trip to a new, exotic locale, taking up a new activity, or just sitting in my bedroom, playing mindless video games, and soaking up new information from some well concocted podcast. Adventure, to me, is pushing to know more and be more than I was the moment before. 

This has caused me to set some fairly lofty goals for the new year. I hesitate to call them resolutions. Resolutions are just wishes blown into the ether, typically never revisited again. I think of these goals and "The Year of Adventure" as challenges to myself. I know that for some, challenges and resolutions are synonyms. For me, the language is everything. I love a challenge. It speaks to my need for motion. It speaks to my need for success. It is absolutely not some vague notion to be abandoned when it becomes inconvenient.

A few months ago, I began the habit of Bullet Journaling. I won't say a ton about that right now, but I will say it's been one of the most calming endeavors I've ever undertaken. It's an amazing tool for me. It's helped me with intentional goal setting, productivity, and it's helped me meet my need to create. It's no wonder then that I've used my bullet journal to help me begin planning the year of adventure.

Read lots of books. That I can do. Not the biggest challenge I've ever set myself. However, just setting the goal will help me keep the need to consume literature at the forefront of my mind. Reading is my mind staying busy with new information and new visceral adventures. Simple enough. This we can do!!

God knows, I never ever wanted to be one of those people, at this point in my life, that started a blog and then abandoned it. Yet, however, I find that to be the situation I am currently in. This blog began last summer with a bang. Lots of posts. Lots of reads. Lots of gratification. As, I do believe, I mentioned before, writing and words have always been a source of outlet for me. Blogging last summer was one of the most gratifying things I did in 2018. Then came a new school year, a new job, and all kinds of other distractions that I let get in the way. Before I knew it, I WAS that blogger. The one who hasn't updated in months. The one who took all that potential and let it slip away.

Twelve months in a year. A post a month. That I can handle. That's a fair challenge. That's an adventure I can undertake. Ultimately, I hope that the consistency of once a month will lead to more. We shall see.

Next it got a little crazy...

100 miles... 100 miles... 100 miles... I just keep repeating it in my head. I wanted to set myself a seemingly insurmountable challenge. I realize that for many serious hikers, this isn't really that grandiose a goal. For me, it is an insane challenge. I love hiking, and I adore the outdoors. I find myself very often thinking about large swaths of wilderness where I can just go for a walk. My mind wants to do this all the time and for long stretches of time. The reality is, my average hike is about one a half to two miles. I go on said walks about two dozen times a year. You can do that math easily. I have to step (haha... pun intended) it up in a big this year to make this happen. It will happen. This is the kind of challenge that sets my teeth on edge and pushes me to be great. This is going to be fun.

I have a few more thoughts about other adventures for 2019. There are several trips I want to take. There are hundreds of local places I want to visit. There are restaurants I want to patronize. There are artistic and intellectual goals I want to meet. There is so much. There is always so much. I can't fully explain how excited this makes me. I so anticipate sitting in the same seat I'm sitting in now come January 2020 and reflecting on the abundance of adventure the last twelve months have provided. I'll check in with you when I get there. Or even better, maybe you can come along with me through the pages of this blog.

This morning when I woke with warm sunshine pounding through my window, I thought there was no better time than right then to hit the road in search of a little mundane Saturday adventuring. I proposed some ideas to The Mom. She settled on one that seemed to suit her, and off we took.

Remember The Mom?

While listening to the first seen of Serial (yes, a bit behind times on our podcasts) we headed out on this beautiful January day (is that an oxymoron?) to Beechmont Avenue over the river in Cincinnati. Our goal was breakfast at The Original Pancake House. In my online research into awesome local restaurants, this place kept popping out at me as having amazing breakfast stop potential. They've been around for years. In fact, I found out this morning that my mom and dad spent the morning after their wedding day having pancakes at the very same place. She didn't think she'd been there since. No special reason for the gap in time. It seems it was just one of those places that fell off her radar.

We were exceptionally pleased with what we found. For 11:30 on a Saturday morning, they were busy but not obnoxiously so. With the rebirth of brunch, it seems many places just aren't worth the crazy long weekend lines anymore. We took advantage of "call ahead seating", but when we arrived there were two or three tables open for patrons. As we ate, it stayed steady and hopping, but no line ever formed.

Mom opted for Egg's Benedict. We are both huge Benedict fans. This was a completely satisfying example. So many place want to add little things to the joy of Benedict. While things like fried green tomatoes, crab, asparagus, and various greens are sometimes welcome additions, in the end, my favorite combination is the classic poached egg, Canadian bacon, toasted muffin, and decadent Hollandaise. That's exactly what this Benedict consisted of, and it was sublime. The Mom's potatoes were tasty, well seasoned, and somewhat forgettable.

I decided on what I thought would be a somewhat healthy option. If my memory from eight hours ago serves me, it was called "southwest scramble". Eggs, onions, peppers, mushrooms, fiesta seasoning (whatever that is), tomatoes, and sausage... It was absolutely delicious. In addition to being delicious, it was HUGE!!! I've never in my life experienced a plate of eggs like this. I asked our friendly waitress how many eggs were in the dish. She laughed and said it was supposed to be five, but the cooks were often heavy handed. Folks, this was easily seven or eight eggs worth of breakfast. I don't think I even ate a quarter of it.

So many eggs!! The bottom picture was after I stuffed myself!

My meal also came with pancakes. I tasted them, as did mom. They were passable. Nothing wrong with them, but also nothing I found special about them. The homemade syrup had an almost alcohol like taste. Again, it wasn't awful, but not good enough to make me waste many carbs. The coffee, that left a better impression. It was strong, hot, and fabulous!!

If you're looking for a breakfast option, I give this one an enthusiastic recommendation. I'm excited to eventually go back and try their famous Dutch Baby. I might also have to buy one of the super cute coffee mugs, despite the fact that, as a teacher, I have no less than one million mugs. :)

Seriously, so cute, and they come in a bunch of color options

After a hearty breakfast, we took off toward another part of our adventure. If I'm going to hike 100 miles in 365 days, there is no time to waste. As mentioned, I spend a good deal of time thinking about places to hike. This leads to even more of that internet research I mentioned above. One place I've read about a few times is the Highland Cemetery Loop. Some genius at Highland Cemetery in Ft. Mitchell, Kentucky decided, at some point, to blaze about two miles worth of hiking trails into parts of the back of the property that are currently un... uhm... occupied. Since I read of this, I'd been intrigued. Their website mentions that every effort was made to do as little ecological damage as possible, and it warns that the trail is little more than a footpath. I highly respect this philosophy, plus the trail maps clearly show a stream, several waterfalls, and what looks to be some decent walking for such an unconventional trail. These are all things that make me want to walk!

Just a mom in the woods

When I hike in the spring, I often find exceptionally rough conditions in the early months. That's just the nature of the beast. Winter is hard on the wilderness. Mud, covered trails, downed tress... they're part of the fun. I knew a hike on a footpath in January might be tricky. Boy, was I right. Definitely the muddiest trek I've taken to date.

Highland Cemetery Loop trail

If you're not much of a hiker, let me state that a muddy trail can be one of the most treacherous experiences you can have on a hike. Mud equals bad footing which equals falling. Falling in the woods can be devastating. There's no more eloquent way to say it. Nobody wants to be the fool on the news that has to be carried out of a two mile cemetery trail by a rescue crew. All this warning might lead one to believe that the path was just too rough for us to walk today. Nah, it's the year of adventure!!

Sadly, we didn't get to do the entire trail system, but we did do a half mile in and out. I had to see that stream, and it did not disappoint. Nothing soothes my soul more than the sound of running water. Nothing makes my heart smile more than skipping across rocks in a stream.

It's worth noting, we both also avoided any falling, rescue crews, or news footage. I call that an adventure success.

I'm feeling exceptionally good tonight about the next twelve months. There is so much to see and so much to do and so much to experience and so much to love about this big, beautiful life I have been granted. I cannot wait to see where it takes me.

I'm reaching out to you, dear reader (just broke the fourth wall.... ohhh), to help with "The Year of Adventure". Do you have some ideas for things we can do, places we can experiences, things we should learn? Big things or small things... books, movies, places, activities? Let me know. If at all possible, I'll give them a go sometime in the next twelve months.

Here's to many more adventures and many more reports!