Our Bridge To Terabithia

At the point where a street dead ends in our neighborhood, there is a really steep sidewalk that goes down the side of this little hill and then it abruptly dead ends as quickly as it starts.  My husband and I have often walked down the sidewalk and then stood there looking at the unpaved ground following it and figured it led to nothing.  How silly that we never bothered to explore it further! lol.  My mom was feeling a bit more adventurous when she was here with us.  She suggested that we continue onward and I am so glad I was up for the trek! As it turns out there is a beautiful, lush, green forest with a simple little trail carved out of the middle.  We could hear a stream flowing off in the distance and even got to see a part of the spring up close and explore it as you will see below.  As night approached, we could see fireflies everywhere lighting up the darkest parts of the forest.  We saw bats too which was a little creepy but, still cool.  Then the unpaved trail unexpectedly turned into a wooden boardwalk that had just been built.  It was SO awesome!!!  Evidently our town is trying to preserve some of the marsh lands around us by turning them into walking trails to encourage people to enjoy them...and I definitely will!  I hope to walk this trail much more often in the future and will even use it for our family pictures from now on as it is so perfect!! I could let my imagination run wild here if I wanted to.  Animals that talk like the Chronicles of Narnia, trees that move and speak like those from Lord of the Rings, mystical kingdoms like Bridge to Terabithia etc.  So much fun!!  I gotta say....having something this beautiful just a few steps from my front door is why I love North Carolina so much!!!  SO much beauty all around and I love soaking it up! We surprised Joey by taking him on this trail on Father's Day and he was just as stoked as we were when we discovered it!