By Elizabeth Clarke, LCU News PINEVILLE, La. (LCU News) - Many educators take the summer months to rest, relax and rejuvenate for the upcoming fall semester. Louisiana Christian University’s Natalie Maxey and her family took a hike---a nearly 100-mile, 8,400-foot high one, that is. The Tour du Mont Blanc is a hiking route around the Mont Blanc massif in the Alps and encompasses about 100 miles through France, Italy and Switzerland and includes significant elevation gains and losses through mountains and valleys (around 35,000 feet of losses and gains for the whole trek). Maxey’s parents, Sam and Judy Brimer, of Pollock, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary this year, she said, and wanted to commemorate it with a big family trip. So they did just that! Maxey and son Grant, 18, her sister  Amanda DuBois and her husband Vaylon ( a spring 2022 LCU graduate) and two children, Parker,22, and Grace, 19, along with the Brimers, took on the Tour du Mont Blanc this July. “My mom started planning this last fall,” Maxey said, “and the huts fill up quickly, so all our accommodations were booked by about February. To prepare, we walked as much as possible and carefully curated all the items we would need in our backpacks to try … [Read more...]