Hocking Hills Hikes: Cantwell Cliffs & Rhododendron Cove

For our second hike of the day, we went to Cantwell Cliffs, another beautiful area. It was far less crowded than the Rock House, probably because the trail was over two miles long and had lots of steps up and down. But we had fun.

After Cantwell Cliffs, we did one more hike. We went to Rhododendron Cove State Nature Preserve. The hike was long, at 2.2 miles, and it wasn't very impressive after our previous hikes. The good thing was that it wasn't crowded: we only saw two other hikers the whole time.

Hocking Hills Hikes: Rock House

Our first hike at Hocking Hills was a short loop trail to Rock House. It was a really big cave, but there were a lot of people there. I love going to Hocking Hills because the rocks, moss, ferns, etc. are always so beautiful.

Airplanes

When Simon isn't playing outside, he's usually making airplanes.

Large Mouth Bass

 Simon caught this huge bass at the pool pond using a live bluegill for bait.

Museum of Life and Science

 After a two-year Covid hiatus, I got us a membership to the Durham Museum of Life and Science again. It was a lot different now that the kids are older. Maybe just because it was a hot day, but they didn't want to play very much. It makes me sad that they're growing out of some of my favorite things (playgrounds, parks, creeks) and that we missed so much due to the never-ending pandemic.

They played in the mist part the most, since all the tunnels are perfect for hide-and-seek.

Father's Day?

 We're really dropping the ball on documenting our Fathers/Mothers days this year. This is the only photo I have of Fathers Day (and since I'm writing this a month later, I have no memory of what we did that day). Given that it was the day we got back from camping, we probably just did a lot of chores.

Jordan Lake Camping

 We had our early summer camping trip at Jordan Lake, joined by Andrea, Murphy, Glenn and Lindsey, Brent, Grayson, Brie. It was a pain to pack up, as always (simply because I hate packing) but it was so much fun once we got there. When we were about to leave on Friday, a huge thunderstorm came through, so we delayed our departure. The good news was the storm dropped the temperature 20 degrees. The bad news was that the power was out at the campground so they closed all the bathrooms. Luckily, power was restored a couple of hours later. Simon spend most of the time paddling around in the various boats. Alice also took quite a liking to Andrea's inflatable paddle board. The only bad thing that happened was Murphy and Grayson were having a mud fight and Grayson took a direct hit to the eye. When he claimed to be blind for several hours (he's known for being dramatic) his mom finally took him to urgent care where they washed a bunch of sand out of his eye and he could see again.