Post by Chester on Jul 10, 2006 9:53:38 GMT -5
We set off yesterday looking for an adventure and we found one! We went to one of the State Parks, Natural Bridge.
You could take a chair lift up the side of the mountain and then it's a pretty gradual walk to the nautral bridge. The Bridge itself is 68 feet off of the top of the mountain. A nasty skiing incident has chairlifts on the "do not do list" for me.
Not only did we all make it up to the top of the natural bridge...I even let everyone walk across it, which I wasn't going to do, no handrails, no edges, no safety nets of any type, only a warning sign saying that on average two people die a year...........eeesshh!
Back to the original point. JT climbed steps, climbed rocks, walked on unsteady ground, was tickeled by plants as he walked by, got piggy back rides from Mom and Dad and HAD THE TIME OF HIS LIFE! He was a riot! At first he was scared, he isn't a fan of unsteady ground, but by the end he was a hiking pro.
The whole time we hiked up, we talked about what kind of a treat we were going to have when we were back down. Ice cream was talked about a lot. We got to the top of the bridge and JT started signing 'ice cream' to everyone we met. One nice lady spent quite a bit of time learning some signs and talking to JT. She felt awful that she didn't have any ice cream to give him.
Feeling pretty confident, we took a harder trail down. We started wondering what we got our selves into when we stopped seeing other hikers. Our daughter was the trail blazer on the way down, "Devils Gultch". She didn't like the trail name. But what a thrill! I'm glad we were going down not up, it was HUGELY steep. I'll never forget JT squeeling with pure delight, or the three of the kids pushing the base of the mountain to hold it up like superheros, or Cory saying to JT, I knew you could do it, you can do anything. Sure JT spent quite a bit of time riding piggy back, but it was so reaffirming to our family that yep we can ALL do anything.
JT got his ice cream when we back on the ground. JT fell asleep HARD as soon as we got in the car. He missed out on pizza. He didn't sleep real long, but boy did he sleep hard. So hard that I think he fooled his body into thinking he slept all night. JT and I were up until about 4 this morning.....big sigh. Of course this was the first morning all summer that the kids had to be out the door by 8:30 so I had to wake the little bugger up!
Here's a link to some pictures, so you can see what I mean. (We didnt' take the pictures, just ones that I found on the internet) www.virtualtourist.com/travel/North_America/United_States_of_America/Kentucky/Natural_Bridge_State_Park-788921/TravelGuide-Natural_Bridge_State_Park.html
Dawn
You could take a chair lift up the side of the mountain and then it's a pretty gradual walk to the nautral bridge. The Bridge itself is 68 feet off of the top of the mountain. A nasty skiing incident has chairlifts on the "do not do list" for me.
Not only did we all make it up to the top of the natural bridge...I even let everyone walk across it, which I wasn't going to do, no handrails, no edges, no safety nets of any type, only a warning sign saying that on average two people die a year...........eeesshh!
Back to the original point. JT climbed steps, climbed rocks, walked on unsteady ground, was tickeled by plants as he walked by, got piggy back rides from Mom and Dad and HAD THE TIME OF HIS LIFE! He was a riot! At first he was scared, he isn't a fan of unsteady ground, but by the end he was a hiking pro.
The whole time we hiked up, we talked about what kind of a treat we were going to have when we were back down. Ice cream was talked about a lot. We got to the top of the bridge and JT started signing 'ice cream' to everyone we met. One nice lady spent quite a bit of time learning some signs and talking to JT. She felt awful that she didn't have any ice cream to give him.
Feeling pretty confident, we took a harder trail down. We started wondering what we got our selves into when we stopped seeing other hikers. Our daughter was the trail blazer on the way down, "Devils Gultch". She didn't like the trail name. But what a thrill! I'm glad we were going down not up, it was HUGELY steep. I'll never forget JT squeeling with pure delight, or the three of the kids pushing the base of the mountain to hold it up like superheros, or Cory saying to JT, I knew you could do it, you can do anything. Sure JT spent quite a bit of time riding piggy back, but it was so reaffirming to our family that yep we can ALL do anything.
JT got his ice cream when we back on the ground. JT fell asleep HARD as soon as we got in the car. He missed out on pizza. He didn't sleep real long, but boy did he sleep hard. So hard that I think he fooled his body into thinking he slept all night. JT and I were up until about 4 this morning.....big sigh. Of course this was the first morning all summer that the kids had to be out the door by 8:30 so I had to wake the little bugger up!
Here's a link to some pictures, so you can see what I mean. (We didnt' take the pictures, just ones that I found on the internet) www.virtualtourist.com/travel/North_America/United_States_of_America/Kentucky/Natural_Bridge_State_Park-788921/TravelGuide-Natural_Bridge_State_Park.html
Dawn
&
Susan, Proud mom of Michael (32), Justin (25) Emily (22ds), and Jordan (20).
