After breakfast, we packed a lunch and headed to Eno Quarry for our new year's day hike. It was a beautiful warm day and the hike was great. We'd never done this trail before, and were delighted to discover nice paths down to the Eno river, with lots of boulders from the quarry for the kids to climb on.
I always feel bad for all those suckers paying a fortune to take their kids to Disney. The nature rides are fun and free, and there's no lines!
They played on the vines and later this hill for quite a long time.
We're always practicing our tree walking skills!
Simon saw this mound on the opposite side of the quarry pond, and couldn't wait to be "king of the hill."
The kids had a lot of fun with this little leaf collection.
Then we took another trail down to another section of the river.
Simon played on this rock for a long time. He really loved scrambling up and down it.
On our way back, we found the ruins of the Cabe mill and played around them for a while.
The stonework on one of the walls was particularly beautiful.
One final stop on the way back--a recently fallen tree provided much entertainment.
To give you a sense of how we hike, we did just over four miles in five hours. We don't so much hike as go outside and play.
When we got home, we made our traditional new years day ham bone soup with black eyed peas. What a nice start to the new year!
