Lake Lure Mtn Trip Day 4: Kayaking

 On the fourth day of the trip, the weather was rainy but still warm enough. We stayed inside and relaxed in the morning, but when the rain let up in the afternoon we went down to the lake and took turns kayaking.

After the kids each took a spin, Zac and I went out for a paddle. We didn't even think about it at the time, but we left our kids alone for about an hour in a strange place. They did fine. Simon, who was recently attacked by a goose, went up to the house rather than stay by the the lake and risk his life with another goose attack. 

Lake Lure Mtn Trip Day 3: Montreat Wilderness

 On Tuesday, the trail we drove to was closed due to construction, so despite all the time I'd spent researching trails in the area, we just ended up picking another trail that was closest to where we already were. So that's how we ended up at the Montreat Wilderness, a hiking area right next to a cute college town. With only a few problems with Simon, we made up to the Lookout rocks. Simon was so thrilled to discover GOLD! (mica) and used his sandwich bag to collect it so he could be rich once he sold it from his gift shop in the garage at home.

The hike was fairly short, so even although we went to a nearby park and played some more, we still made it back to the mountain house with some time to relax while Zac cooked supper. Simon went fishing while Alice and I read.

After supper, Simon went fishing and had a couple of good catches!

That evening, we had another fire down by the creek.

We all have different approaches to fire time.

Lake Lure Mtn Trip Day 2: Wild Cat Rock hike

 For our first full day, I planned a hike for us up to Wildcat Rock. It was a short hike, about 4 miles round trip with a nice destination.

Simon always breaks down about 10-15 minutes into every hike because he just wants to play in the woods and gets really frustrated that we want to keep walking all the time. So for this hike, even although we let him play a bit right at the beginning (he loves to climb trees), he still had a breakdown and was crying until I convinced him we would only walk for 10 minutes until finding another place to play.  So this is why our hiking rate is 1 mile per hour if we're lucky. But it is fun to play in the woods, it's just that Simon wants to stop at the first tree and doesn't realize there will be more interesting places further along. He's always very happy when we do stop though.

After numerous stops and snacks, we finally made it up to Wildcat Rock and had our lunch there.

We eventually completed the hike and made it back to the cabin for a spaghetti and meatball supper on the deck.

This was a our view: looking at a creek and some distant mountains. Not much foliage yet though.

After supper, we went down by the creek and had a fire and bedtime snack.

Lake Lure Mtn Trip Day 1: Bones

 For spring break, I rented a house for us about four hours west, towards the mountains, in an area centered around Lake Lure. We left home on Sunday around noon and arrived at our awesome mountain house in time to unpack and make supper. We explored the house and property, and neither Zac nor I took a single picture except of this deer skeleton Alice found in the grass down by the lake. It seemed like a good omen.

A couple days later I remembered I should document the house and view:

Simon's March fish

 Simon didn't really catch anything for the month of February, but in March, the fish were hungry and biting again. He was quite happy to be pulling the unlucky fish out the water again!

They all look the same to me, but these are all different catches. Simon fishes constantly in his free time, and usually alone. So these are just the fish he caught when Zac was fishing with him.