After packing up the stuff and saying goodbye to the hotel (it's cute that the girls still don't know the difference between a 5-star hotel and the ratty place we were staying...it's nice to know that it's going to be a special memory to them even if it was less than stellar to trained eyes) we drove over to Clarksville for a 'nature walk'. My family used to spend a lot of time going on hikes in Eastern Pennsylvania, so it's something I'd like for them to at least have as part of their world. And also, we have potential plans for some small walks in the Smokies in August, so we wanted to see how they'd handle the idea. I had found a park in Clarksville with 3 trails and decided to try one that went by a creek, so we'd have a sort of physical objective in mind. We spent the whole drive explaining that we weren't going to a playground, that we were going for a nice walk in the woods, etc...because Faith can get it into her mind that something is boring or pointless (like staying and talking with your family after dinner) and just become miserable. Anyway, we also remembered the night before that we had forgotten to pack the second Bjorn, so we were going to have to either carry them or attempt to push the stroller.
SOOOO, we got there. Found the trail. It was actually a lot less distance to the creek than I had thought, but then right there at the overlook and bench, the terrain dropped off into a dry creekbed. So having come all this way and talked it up, and with the girls being in a pretty good mood, I left Steph with the stroller up on the bench and Faith and Mari and I headed off on a little 'adventure' into the ravine. It was a little muddy of course, but pretty dry, so not too slippery. And it went really well. We got all the way down to the bottom, and waved back up to Steph. And then, after successfully navigating the whole descent, Mari turned around and fell in the mud.
Not bad at all, but since Mari likes a new napkin after each bite of food, it was a moment of panic for me. But she thought it was funny, and she managed to not put her muddy hands all over her hair and clothes. We climbed back up, did get a little muddy on the way, and used baby wipes to perfunctorily clean everyone up (during which time Faith managed to wipe her muddy shoes all over me). The whole thing took about 20 minutes, but it was a nice, fun, memorable ending to the whole affair. The girls were so good, we let them play at the playgrounds there at the park for a while before we headed home.
So, all things considered, a modest vacation was acheived with pretty good results. Nice to be home. Nice to know that we have more small trips planned throughout the summer. Anyway, thanks for checking in, we'll keep posting the day-to-day stuff, and maybe I'll have some brand new videos in a few days.
Matt
