My husband came home an hour and a half early the other day, which absolutely NEVER happens! So we jumped at the chance to do something spontaneous--he suggested going to a park, so I swagbucks searched and found this Nature Preserve hiking place. The website said they closed the gates at 7, so we had a good 2.5 hours to enjoy ourselves. If you can see that tiny green line on the right, that's EJ. He was halfway down the trail before we had even taken three steps! I think he was excited! We hiked up to an overlook spot. The first trail was nice and wide and flat, because that's where the vehicles drive. To get to the overlook spot, we had to actually hike. :-) We made it! Our next stop was a tree house overlook. More hiking, but mostly downhill, this time. And apparently, we didn't get any pictures, so here's the tree house! Enjoying the view. I got dizzy walking across that thing, and looking down--it was like in the movies when the camera zooms in and out really fast. But EJ loved it! My husband, bless his heart, had to take about 17 pictures like this. We were glad for the rest. :-) We headed back to the car, but not before we saw these little guys crawling along. Anyone know what kind of butterfly/moth they will turn into? After taking their picture, the big one started crawling toward the camera. So we got a video. It's not in focus, but it's still pretty cute! I love EJ's commentary. :-) Then we came across an old mining shaft. By this time, it was about 6:15, which for pre-Daylight Savings, means it's getting to be a little dark. The path we had to go on to get back to the beginning was that big, wide, flat trail. With trees grown up on both sides so they covered the sky. It only got darker! And scarier! At one point, I looked to my right off into the woods, and immediately I thought, "This is what nightmares are made of!" Any scary woods scene you have ever seen on TV, this was worse. In the broad daylight, I had thought being stranded in the woods couldn't possibly be THAT bad, but when I gazed into the woods just then, the darkness pierced my soul and the trees and bushes sent tingles all up and down my spine. We were about 5 minutes from our car when all of a sudden, we heard about 7 or 8 "dogs" start howling. I put that in quotes because the PARK RANGER told us he thought it was coyotes, or, as he put it, "kiyotes"--pronounced phonetically. Even when we were safely in the confines of the car, my husband held to his dogs theory. I don't ever want to know what they really were. This is the last shot of the night, right before we headed home. Way too dark to be hiking. But it was still only 6:45. They should seriously have almost-daylight savings hour-hours. Next time, we'll know better.
1 Comment
Mom
10/11/2013 02:53:07 pm
What a fun, spontaneous, family time! Glad you thought the barking was dogs--I'm sure it would have been much worse if you had even considered that they might be something else! Whew!
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In 2006 I had a stroke, and every day my husband encourages me to use my remaining brain cells to the best of my ability. I love to organize, make crafts, and go on adventures (safe ones). I hope that through my blog posts, you will be encouraged to accept and make the best of challenges God throws at your life. Categories
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