Anniversary Week Vacation is a Tradition to Keep

Last year, we took vacation the week of our anniversary to celebrate 10 years.  The weather was superb… so we did it again.  This week the weather, again, is superb!!!!  It’s sunny, warm but not sticky, and just so entirely pleasant.  So we’ve spent the majority of it outside.

We happened upon the Allegheny Geo Trail and decided it would be fun to tackle this week.  Well… at least a portion of it.  Basically, you visit a specific county in PA and pick up a passport booklet.  County by county, you have to find at least 6 specially marked geocaches.  They have a special stamp in them that you use to mark your passport.  Then you take it to the passport headquarters for that county and they will give you a trackable commemorative geocoin.

We started in Venango County.  It was HARD.  The first cache find took hours because we kind of went the hard way.  Ooops!  It didn’t help that we forgot to mark the waypoint for the car and decided to just pick our way through the forest in the supposed right direction.  We were thankful to find another hiker out with his dog who pointed us to the right trail.  We would have eventually found it, but it may have taken a while longer.  All in all though… we got the required 6 and returned for our little prize.  We closed out the day with a quick stop at DAIRYQUEEN!!!  Oh ya!!!

 

Yesterday we hit Crawford County working on the same goal.  We found 5 out of 6 caches.  We would have had all 6, but we failed to read the fine print telling us that we had to find one of them during regular business hours.  UGH!!!  It was beautiful there though.  We loved the sky and the water.

 

The Covered Bridge cache was the first one yesterday.  It was so neat and quaint.  It’s near Seneca Hills Bible Camp.  We saw a chicken way out there in nowhereville… WEIRD!!! 

 

This sunflower field was in a conservation area near Polk, PA.  What a neat town in a really cool valley.  Very nice. 

I couldn’t resist this photo of the awesome sky reflecting off the pond.  So majestic!!!  God sure does know how to put together an awesome site!

 

Here we are… happy hikers! 

 

We ended the day with a DELICIOUS dinner at Rachel’s Roadhouse.  We had a gift card that cut our bill in half! I’m all about a bargain.  Today we think we’ll visit Red Robin… to get my free birthday sandwich.  The offer expires after today.  Mmmm…. chicken sandwich.  YUMMA!!!!

 

Today we are doing other things around home.  The car needs a little repair.  I think it’s not cut out to handle all the back country dirt roads of the north.  Hopefully it’s not an expensive repair.  It did, however, convince me that it would be good to have a AAA membership.  Thankfully, it didn’t leave us stranded.

 

We have plenty more exploring to tackle… we can’t wait!  AND… we are planning to drop a geocaching Travel-Bug on our anniversary, in honor of our anniversary that will be tasked with traveling to all the coolest honeymoon destinations in the world.  How fun!!!

Crouse Run Nature Reserve

Over coffee this morning, Keith says “What’s the plan for today?”  “Well” I reply, “I’d really like to hike, but I realize that you are really beat from working hard this week.”  “Sorry.  I really don’t feel like it today.” he says.  “I understand.  If you don’t want to go, I can go later without you.  No big deal.”  The conversation continues noting that we have a couple of travel bugs we need to move.  Maybe we could find somewhere close by to drop them.  That turned into agreeing to hit this little trail not far from home… The Crouse Run Nature Reserve. 

There were three caches along this trail that we were determined to find.  If we hoofed it a little farther, we could have had four, but we were on a race against the clock because he has to work today.  The photo above is the one called “Wildwood Boardwalk.”  There is a marshy area on the trail where they have basically built a boardwalk so you can continue on.  And then hidden not far off the beaten path was this box of goodies.  We snagged a small container of Playdoh, trading it for one of the travel bugs we needed to move. 

 

 

The trail was really neat.  It followed close to a creek bed.  We crossed the creek at least three times.  I guess that’s why the geocaching site warned to wear boots and prepare to get wet.  I wish we would have had time to play in the creek.  There was so much shale that its probably a fossil-gold-mine if you take the time to search.  As a matter of fact, if we had not had time constraints, we probably would have walked back IN the creek bed instead of on the trail. 

 

There were all kinds of interesting sites along the way.  Aside from water, rocks, trees, and foot bridges, there was an area with a bunch of odd structures around a fire pit.  I’m not sure what happened or happens here, but maybe some kind of Indian re-enactment?   There were a couple tent-like things made out of tree branches and leaves.  It was slightly creepy.  We did not linger long. 

 

So all in all… so much for NOT hiking today.  It was kind of short (hike-wise), but it was still really fun.  I enjoyed spending quality time with my Hubby.  

Weekend Adventures

Here is a photo from the wedding picnic on Saturday.

 

After church Sunday morning, we hooked up with my friend and her daughter and went hiking at North Park.  We found SIX caches in 2.5 hours.  We hiked up big hills and down steep valleys.  We saw a lovely doe in the woods.  We passed over some baby snakes and around creepy spider webs.  There was an observation deck, but there wasn’t much to see because of the overgrowth of vines in the area.  There were bird-boxes and houses galore.  There was a pond, wetlands, prairie, ants, birds, squirrels, and the like.  It was sunny, hot, and humid.  We stopped at a bridge to admire rather large trout and a school of baby bass.  Afterwards, we stopped for ice cream.  (that’s allowed on Sundays)

Overall… it was an AWESOME afternoon of hiking!  I cannot wait to go again!

Recap of Last Week

Monday:  work, haircut – nice and short

Tuesday: work, chores, cdentist

Wednesday:  work, chores, RIDE!!!

Thursday:  work, chores, Penny had her feet trimmed, spent hours chatting with friends and enjoying the evening

Friday:  work, chores, home early to do house-work and enjoy some peace.

Saturday:  WEDDING celebration!!!  My cousin married her high-school sweetheart.  It was hot, but just lovely.

Sunday:  Up early…. to be continued…

 

This weeks goals:

• Focus on intake
• HIKE!!!
• Clip Coupons
• Get Groceries
• Ride at least once

Canoe Trip Continued…

I just thought these were pretty pictures that Keith took with his cell phone.  Enjoy!

Am I Adventurous?

Ok. It’s gone beyond just trying a new food, turkey burgers.  Somehow I got the itch to try canoeing again.  I’m NOT a water sport kind of a gal.  Not by a mile!!!  We went once before, years ago, and I hated every minute of it!  When your feet are supposed to be dry… they are supposed to be dry!  Perhaps I didn’t really know what to expect?  Hmmm…  The thing is… we both hurt our ankles on Saturday, so we didn’t want to hike, but we definitely wanted to enjoy the day. 

I DID fall out of the boat.  We banked it here in the rocks.  I got out first.  I slipped on a slimy rock and fell right on my butt in about 6 inches of water!!!!  My other leg was stuck in the boat.  Ahhhhh!!!!  So then the people floating past on tubes wanted to know if I was ok, which I was, just embarrassed.  When I finally regained my composure I noticed a lobster-size crayfish in the water right beside where my butt was planted!  Ahhhhh!!!!!!!  Keith said he could see it from the back of the boat.  WOW!  

Oh well.  The water was warm and mostly calm.  It was a nice upper body workout, only 4 miles.  What a gorgeous day for it!  I would do that again in a heartbeat!  (don’t tell Keith!) 

 

So there you have it… perhaps an adventurous side of me does exist?  Hmmm… what next?  Fish for dinner???  Doubt it!!!