our anniversary mountain weekend

so, this past Friday, we packed lightly and headed for the mountains to celebrate our 37th wedding anniversary! what a beach does for MOST people...mountains do for us!!! we quite desperately have needed a get away, as it seems we deny ourselves the luxury of "time out"...aka vacation or any kind of respite.....and though a weekend barely meets the need....it sure gave us a head-start....and brought us to the realization of how important it is to pay attention and nurture that need!!!.......well........we fell in love with a little cabin called "Bearly There"......waaaayyyyyy at the top of a mountain.....

so here we are...on our way....

...the little covered bridge on our trek up the mountain....isn't it sooo cute...let me tell ya...my heart was racing...seriously....
when we finally got there after creeping up the mountain, hoping there would be no oncoming traffic...we found our little Red Riding Hood cottage in the woods....called "Bearly There'!....i was almost squealing with delight...from the minute we drove up.......i could see the little lamps on inside...the caretaker had prepared it for us and it was a welcome sight indeed!
this is the view off the screened in back porch!.....ahhh.......peace...quiet....nature...
..the comfy screened in porch....so cozy...so inviting!...altho...believe it or not..it was chilly out there...so we didn't stay there as long as we would have liked to!
...cool view from the porch...

...and yes....there was a deck, with a hot tub....so...my brave sweetie got in...after dark....in 30 degrees temps!!!......i did NOT participate....he loved it....

...here is Larry with binoculars...looking for..., well, for ANY kind of wildlife, really...but we would have LOVED to see a BEAR...that, by the way, is my life long goal...to see a bear in the wild...something i have not seen...YET...i was just sure i was going to fulfill that dream this past weekend...but, alas...these are the only bears we saw....


this little bear watched over us while we slept in our little old fashion feather mattress bed, with a twig headboard! so cozy!
we spied this tennis ball..perfectly wedged into the trees...after reading the guest book we discovered that a guest was throwing the ball for his dog and it lodged in the tree!!!!.....btw.....this was a pet friendly cabin, so, of course, Simba came along with us...he, however did NOT have a good time.....he was so scared and so nervous...we just "knew" he must be smelling a bear....don't you think???
here are the "living quarters"........just right!

...and this is what hubs kept busy with! and oh, how he loved it! and i did too!...it was surprisingly cold way up there on that mountain!....he kept a fire going all Friday nite and all day and nite Saturday!!!!.......it was wonderful!!!!


below is a picture of the cabin when snow was on the ground!

a funny sign on the porch:
...and sadly...the weekend came to a close...and so did the fire....the last few burning embers of the warm, wonderful fire!