Day Trip

With Daddy working a summer job while school is out, we are having a different kind of summer than we are used to. He has this one week at home so we planned some fun things to do. 

Today was a day trip to Stone Mountain State Park. We wanted to go somewhere within a couple hours of home and somewhere we'd never been. Perfect!

          Lovely cumulus mediocris

Stone Mountain was originally part of the Hutchinson homestead, made into a state park in 1969. We began our visit with a picnic and then moved on to hike to the falls. 

You actually start at the top and work your way down, quite opposite than usual. 

From here we walked down a million steps. 512 to be exact. 

And ended here:

How cool is that?! It was amazing and beautiful. We loved playing at the base of the falls. The water was still cold! Grace held a salamander and Curtiss saw 3 water snakes. 

We then began the exhausting hike back UP all. those. stairs. But we made it back to the van and drove to the homestead. Where I had my husband drive to the handicap parking lot. Cause we were all not up to another 2 mile hike. 

Three generations lived in this cabin, built in 1855. The first generation raised 8 children in the original section, in just three rooms. One of their sons added on a bit and he also raised 8 children here. As we walked through the farm we realized what was in their backyard. 

I thought of my son-in-law, who likes to rock climb, because they allow that here. I can't imagine! We did a very scaled down version of that at the base. 

That blurred image is my son and all the rock climbing I want to witness! We headed back to the cabin for a last look. 

As I took this picture I thought of all the children this porch has seen. I wondered about all the memories made on this homestead. Did someone write them down? Or are they gone from this earth, like their creators?

 

It was a lovely day.