Monday, October 13, 2008

A day trip

On Saturday our friends invited us to join them on a trip up into the mountains for lunch and a hike. We always enjoy hiking with them and AB and I realized how nice it would be to get out of town for the day and into the mountains while it is cooling down and the leaves are changing. Plus, we were intrigued by the hike which is probably about 3 miles round trip to a cave (dubbed "the bat cave") at the end with the last part being a loop through the cave.

AB and I have always been a bit of cave buffs. We have done a little spelunking years ago in Wind Caves and Jewel Cave National Parks in South Dakota as well as some lava tube exploration at Lassen in California. Truly amazing.

We got Leif all psyched up for the trip and headed out Saturday after swimming. Skadi slept in the car for the about 1 hour 45 minute drive into the mountains. We met up with our friends, ate lunch (scared away the neighboring table with our rambunctous kids) and then headed to the trailhead with an anxious (getting old) dog.


Skadi walked the first quarter mile or so until we finally decided to get the show on the road and deposited her in the Kelty carrier. We finally made it to the cave and Leif was thrilled to go look for bats. I was amazed though how well he behaved and willingly shined his light where it was needed without having to ask twice.

Going into the cave.




Coming out - the dog was NONE too thrilled about the cave aspect.


The kids shared an apple on the way back and I loved these photos:




Now please excuse me while I go cry and wonder how we went from this:

to this:

all in the blink of an eye.

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