July 2015

Then Mama's two blocks away

two nights of tent sleeping and lots of activity seem to have wiped them out! Plus our new technology this year was the bike. They would be sitting around the campsite and say, I'm going for a couple loops - mainly Nico, but Maya always followed. They'd be gone for 15 minutes, come back, carry on... Nico went on at least a dozen rides in the 5-7 p.m. range. Then last night they hooked up with two sisters on bikes and rode for 2 hours. Alexandria was around Nico's age, Victoria as Maya's age. V rode a 12 incher with training wheels, but she zipped. Alex had an adult mtb, which was big, but that should last her as long as she wants to ride it. Good bike move parents! These sisters live somewhere on Girard. They arrived for the weekend on Thursday afternoon. Nico and Maya told them about the snake program at the ampitheater near our campsite. We planned to ride bikes over at about 8:45, it's a 4 minute ride, 10 minute walk. We rode over in full on night light mode (electrical site, I re-charged all my lights and electronics while camping!) and it turns out the program is this Saturday night, not Thursday night. They only do programs on the weekends. So, our mid-week camping strategy kinda failed us on that along with a lack of attention to detail on my part.

I made them pose with the bag of Pirate Booty because it's all they talked about for half an hour on the way to this spot! A

Now this is the sweet river access we're looking for!! Look at that shore, walk right out to the 3 inch deep 48 degree creek smooth rock bed and plant a lounging chair for the afternoon. That's living! Nico explored, Maya had great adventure ideas. We were at this spot for 3 hours or so and didn't see anyone else. We walked across to an "island" where the water was moving pretty fast at 18-24 inches, so we had to hold hands across those areas. Then we could walk around a 20 yard long 10 wide grassy knoll of sorts. Salamander hunting (a new idea for Nico, he didn't know they lived there) and Maya liked to stand in the "falls". Maya wanted to swim in a 4 foot eddy with me, but that water is too cold for me! So, we'd sit around for 30-45 minutes, go on a half hour adventure, return to resume lounging.

These are Nico requested pictures during the Mystery Cave Tour