Tale of the Hundred Mile Hike

After looking over my posts, they have gotten a bit heavy. It seems I have left out the specifics of our visits with the boys. These weekends have been mini-vacations for our family. Gabbi now knows how to wheel her own carry-on bag and buckle her own airplane seatbelt. She considers herself very well travelled. I suppose she is.


On our quest to find family-friendly, inexpensive activities in South Carolina, the boys suggested that we "go to the mountains". I would later remind them that it was them, and not us, who had come up with this idea. 


Friday evening, we took in "Megamind-3D". Several sugar-highs and a very funny  movie later, we were ready to get out of the house on Saturday morning. We piled kids, snacks and entertainment into our rented car and headed for the mountains. Thanks to GPS, we made it up a winding and seemingly endless road a little over an hour later. We landed at Caesar's Head State Park in South Carolina. It was beautiful, picturesque and ...too quiet. My children ran helter-skelter, climbing on railings and making my mommy-alarm go wild. After a quick stop, I was informed that the shortest hike would be provided on Trail #15...roughly two miles. Two miles didn't sound like much---tire the kids out, head home for a quiet evening. Silly mommy.


We started off the trail the picture of happiness. Skipping down the trail, my children darted from leaf to leaf, pointing out colors and walking sticks. Fast forward to twenty minutes and approximately 300 yards later...total meltdown.  Ethan's legs were "broken"---clearly no chance for recovery. Andru was smacking every object in sight with a walking stick that, thus far, had not been used for walking. Gabbi was watching her two heroes and alternating imitation--broken legs one second, stick swords the next. My husband was mumbling something about the amount of "country walking" the boys would need to join him in the woods, and could not understand what I found so funny. 


It all felt so...normal. Children crawling and complaining through the woods. Mommy and Daddy determined to have a good time as a family, darn it. For the record, we made it. All two miles. The whole way home, Andru and Ethan insisted that we had walked at LEAST a hundred miles. Maybe...or we still have ninety-eight to go.