Wolf Mountain Trail at Pedernales Falls State Park
To most people, yesterday was Black Friday, a consumerist holiday that it seems like nearly every American store in existence participates in. Even pet stores have Black Friday sales. I remember all of our efforts at Petsmart while I worked there, getting hyped up about how great our sales would be. We would spend hours merchandising and getting things ready only to be sorely disappointed by sales by the end of the day. My attitude toward this tradition and toward consumerism in general has changed a lot since then. I had been quite happy to see so many nationwide retail outlets not open on Thanksgiving. I was even more appreciative when other retailers announced that they would be closed on the day after. One of our favorites, REI, was one such store. Last year, Chris and I spent our day after Thanksgiving hiking in Bastrop . This year, REI encouraged their employees and members to do the same thing with a campaign called #OptOutside. We were already planning on visiting a state pa