For this Spring Break we ventured north to Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio.
First stop: the Lost Sea in Tennessee. There was some trepidation at the thought of getting on a boat in a cave deep under a mountain, but, hey, what's an adventure without some tears? We were all smiles by the time we exited the cave.
Our next stop was the Cumberland Gap, where we hiked a little and saw an amazing view of Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia. It started raining on us a little, which turned out to be par for the course for this trip and nothing we couldn't handle.
Then we headed to Lexington for the night. The rain that we encountered on the way ushered in a cold front that made the rest of our Spring trip feel more like a Winter adventure. The next day we visited Ashland, the Henry Clay Estate and then headed for the Ark Encounter, where we were rained upon, nearly blown away and just generally frozen. But it was still so neat to see the life-size replica.
Then we headed to our home for the next three nights - a small apartment on the other side of the river from Cincinnati. Thursday morning, we embarked on a two-hour drive to Hocking Hills, Ohio, for some mesmerizing natural formations and hiking. Because of the frigid temperatures, we made a pit stop at the Walmart to clear out their clearance bin of all their gloves and hats. On our hike we encountered sleet, rain. mud, waterfalls, rock climbing, towering hemlock trees, massive boulders, and steep cliffs. What was originally supposed to be a two-hour hike turned into three and a half hours (and seven miles!) because of the slow conditions. Judson was in heaven! Caleb, not so much. He was pouting and hiking way ahead of the rest of us. We may have lost Caleb along the way, but we found him after a few minutes frantic search (and with the help of some other friendly hikers). I think we all learned an important lesson that day: don't go so far ahead of the rest of the group that you can't turn back and see them and definitely stop when you reach any important crossroads. I simultaneously wanted to berate him and give him a gigantic hug when we finally found him wondering in the (wrong) parking lot. At the end of that day, we treated our muddy selves to some ice cream on the way back to the city and then Skyline chili in Cincinnati.
For our last day, we visited the Creation Museum (where it sleeted on us again!) and then went to a Cincinnati Reds game. With all of our muddy, mismatched clothes, we closely resembled a pack of homeless people as we wondered around the museum and the city. But we were warm(ish). (Not pictured: me wearing three shirts, a blue jean jacket, a toboggan, and one of Wren's shirts wrapped around my neck like a scarf with the hood over my head. I was definitely the leader of the hobo pack.)
Two things I learned for sure on this trip: anywhere can be a fun adventure as long we're together and...it's never too cold for ice cream!
