When the cold ocean calls !

There is no place like home, except for the beach 🏝 

I've wondered a few times, how would a beach town look during a non-summer season. To my satisfaction, I was pleased to meet a cold ocean and a quiet city this November. 

Water was cold and temperature were low but the views were incomparable. Instead, due to less hustle bustle on the beach I got ample opportunity to get close to the ocean and take it all in the beauty of this free and enormous source of energy. 

This was a very last-minute adventure that our family took to Ocean City, MD and we were extremely excited to have a beautiful view closer to the waves. Most days I got my share of the beautiful sunrise ❤️

We truly got lucky and got a chance to cover the Fenwick island lighthouse during our morning coffee run and the night came with a beautiful surprise to a cute town, Berlin which had Xmas on steroids :)

Fenwick island
Fenwick Island Lighthouse is a lighthouse in Delaware, United States, on the Delaware/Maryland state line. The structure dates back to 1858 making it the oldest lighthouse in the state of Delaware.

Berlin MD - Ice Ice baby 2020
Every year, this town hosts an Ice sculptures festival on the roads of a very beautiful old school town. The people were high on Christmas spirits and all the shop were beautifully decorated with trees, polar expresses and miniature towns while serving hot cocoas. 

Just cause it’s that time of the year, I got to dress up in my pair of denims more than I like but my distressed look kept me comfy and stylish in the cold weather (where I took my jacket and mask off every time I took a picture 🤣)

But thankfully the weather was super friendly and it didn’t bother us much to walk on the streets in slightly breezy cold winter night.

Since the name calls for it I can’t discount the good feeling of walking barefoot on the sand and it took all the reality away for a while :)

One more thing which was noticeably exciting for my family was to completely enjoy the boardwalk, sea side eateries and a short stop at Assateague island to check out wild horses 🐎 

  

We had a fantastic time spent at ocean city and it motivated us to do more and more trips whenever we can because when the ocean calls ... you got to be there ❤️

Do more of what makes you happy !!❤️

But first, what is happiness ?

IMHO, happiness is a choice that we make everyday. So it’s a matter of what you experience and the emotions you go through in that fleeting moment -  that defines your happiness. 

The source of happiness could be a person, place, thing or a feel good sensation in any of our senses (what we see, hear, smell, feel and taste). In most cases they are just the medium of how we felt in a moment and which probably would have left a beautiful memory and we called us being happy! You can say that the aftermath is also a pleasant emotional state which is full of contentment, gratification and pure joy. Just how these words bring a wave of positivity in our mind, happiness is simply a mindset.

Still the question remains what makes me happy ! The more I think about it, clearer it gets to sort things in the right way and come to terms of what really really makes me happy. 

True happiness to me - is enjoying your own company and living in peace and harmony with your body, mind and soul. For being truly happy you neither need other people nor materialistic things. And it brings other dimensions to you such as being confident, brave, vulnerable and honest. 

But truly, Happiness is always a result of personal effort. Sometimes you may have to work hard for it and fight for it. Sometimes you have to talk to yourself and insist upon it and even manifest it. So once those hard earned rewards are found we may have to put in effort to sustain that. Just like if loosing weight made you happy, you need to work hard to maintain it, if getting a promotion made you happy, you need to work hard to excel in it, if being in a relationship made you happy, you need to work hard for it to bloom - be it your kids, partner or friends.

 

And when you don't know what makes you happy - just TRAVEL :)

The devotion that comes from the heart in the process of finding your reasons of true happiness and enjoying the consequences is a brilliant experience in itself so that’s why YOU must make that mighty effort and DO MORE OF WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY.

Once you’ve found them, then all you need is to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever and enjoy every moment with a spiritual enlightenment. 

But something will go wrong all the time🤦‍♀️, at that time the important thing is to standup to your choices and not repent a single thing ❤️

 

Life’s a hike !!

I always want to come up with some kinda interesting catch phrase for my post and given all the covid -times, this thread has been most dearest to me honestly which has kept me going for so long. So indeed "Life" is a Hike.

Since this blog has always motivated me personally and became a self-rewarding morale-boosting interest-building exciting activity for me, "Tangy notes" has taken several turns from a cooking blog to travel to fashion and now to life. 

I am no blogger or writer by any means but also I have never hesitated in trying anything new - I will give that much credit to myself :) that is why Tangy notes will be a special place for me to document some precious ME moments that I want to look back and smile to. 

Coming to hikes, I now consider them as a sanity building fitness activity that we have been enjoying as a family (obviously mixed with some dragging, crying, huffing and puffing from my 2 little hikers). Personally, all the hikes have given me time to be with myself, run through my deep emotions while walking and then finally a pat on the back towards building some kind of consistency in a group physical activity.

So here are my lookout points in the hike of life that I wished to explore !!

Shals

Conway Robinson State Park: This was a flat trail and a closed loop. It was a great find with a muddy biking path. 
http://www.dof.virginia.gov/stateforest/list/conway-robinson.htm

 Raven Rocks: As the name goes, this trail was 5.3 miles of pure hard work with a rewarding view of the extremely beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains via the Applachian trail.
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/virginia/raven-rocks-via-appalachian-trail

McKee Beshers: This is not a trail but if you are looking for a beautiful sunflower display, you may want to check it out. Be sure to check out the full bloom time before you plan.
https://dnr.maryland.gov/wildlife/Pages/publiclands/central/mckeebeshers.aspx

Billy Goat Trail: A very flat 4.7 mile of a beautiful river channel alongside which has plenty to see.
https://www.hikingupward.com/OMH/BillyGoatTrail/

Beaver Dam: Short and sweet trail in our backyard. Loved the beautiful views of kayaks, paddleboards and fishing in the ware body.
https://www.novaparks.com/parks/beaverdam-reservoir

 Hollow Brook: Medium level hike to reward the hikers with a beautiful waterfall.
 https://www.hikingupward.com/OVH/HollowBrook/

Bull Run Occpquan trail: The loveliest of all trails in Manasas. Various lookout points, perfect for overlooking the river path.
https://www.novaparks.com/parks/bull-run-occoquan-trail

 Bears Den: There was no bear but a great view definitely caught our attention.
https://www.bearsdencenter.org/

Harepers Ferry: Our all time favorite Church that lead to a beautiful trail over Loudoun heights. 
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/west-virginia/loudoun-heights-trail-to-split-rock

Aldie Dam: So close and so beautiful. An evening stroll lead to a beautiful find. No wonder it is crowded with Loudoun residents. There is a beautiful "beach" and a "swing" to complete the scenery.

Crabtree Waterfalls: My love for waterfalls is not a joke and it was worth the long drive to discover this beautiful hike and a very steep trail.

https://www.nps.gov/blri/planyourvisit/crabtree-falls-trail.htm

Leesylvania State Park: We really needed to record a hike on the last of August to complete a challenge and achieve our limited edition badge in our watches and We did it! 

https://www.dcr.virginia.gov/state-parks/leesylvania 

Manassas Battlefield Park: For years of just passing by and admiring a small little fort from the traffic light stop, finally we made our trip to beautiful battlefield park on a pleasant  cloudy day. The park is an historic site and is loaded with history of civil war. The park is marked with number of signboards depicting the details of the battle of Manassas and is a great find. 

https://www.nps.gov/mana/index.htm

Triple Falls on Bruce Creek TN

While in the mountains of TN, it made sense to explore a little and record an entry to visit some beautiful waterfalls and to our luck we had a very beautiful not one , not two but a triple waterfall creek. It had lookout points to see three waterfall points with an amazing uphill hike. 

And yes BE #fearless ! 

https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/tennessee/triple-falls-trail-on-bruce-creek

Cove Lake State Park, TN

Another of a close by trail from our vacation house which led to the beautiful scenic lake view points. 

#Mindovermatter

https://tnstateparks.com/parks/cove-lake

Mountain Calling ⛰ TN

We always look for moments to breakthrough into a positive vibe and the change of scenery helps. But, more important thing is to have a breakthrough of mindset. Traveling to the mountains in Gatlinburg, TN was the step in that direction.

In my self discovery I learnt that the mountains are exact representation of life - The “peace and quiet” of the mountain is what we look for to achieve the calmness and stability in life. The “uphill and downhill” represents the movements in life that never stops. The “lookout points” are a perfect stopovers in life to appreciate and admire and count the blessings. Watching sunrise and sunset are the hopes and dreams that we cannot survive without. 🤓

This trip also came at the right time to celebrate something really important to me so having a great family time was all in my agenda. Exploring little trails and short hikes were a perfect way to enjoy the beautiful week of October. 

Gatlinburg has also a great downtown which offers plenty of tourist activities which we didn’t do at all. 

The skybridge and visit to the Ole Smoky Moonshine distillery did the trick to give the perfect TN feel :)

While driving back, we made a pit stop at blackbird donuts and relished hash brown casserole and lemon glazed donuts in a small town called Bristol which is the “Birthplace of country music” and is on the border of TN and VA. Pretty cool ..

Lilacs with Sunnies

A unique lilac color flowy-dress that was sitting and waiting for a right opportunity to make an entry on tangy notes (may be we should just call it  just notes ;-) )

The lovely 3-tier mid length dress with an off-shoulder neckline is perfect for a brunch, photo-shoot or a day party!

I especially wore it to contrast with yellow sunflowers and also matched with a floral headband...to make it extra! 

And my white wedges were a playful compliment to this look.

https://www.amazon.com/ETCYY-Womens-Shoulder-Chiffon-Pleated/dp/B07SDMHFL1/ref=sr_1_13?dchild=1&keywords=purple%2B3%2Btier%2Bdress&qid=1599888324&sr=8-13&th=1

 

 

NOLA Carnival !👗👠