Monday Musings

Good morning all!  I hope everyone had a great weekend - I would describe mine as unproductive, but very enjoyable.

Unproductive, but certainly not boring.  Saturday morning I met some friends at a benefit pancake breakfast for their church's youth group, carb loaded, then joined some others from their church for an 8 mile hike to Ramsay Cascade. 

I still haven't purchased a camera, so I didn't get any pictures Saturday.  Jay and I had done the hike previously so I figured I'd share pictures of that hike.  Please don't judge - it was December of 2006.  We'd been dating 2 months or so.  And those pants don't fit me any more.

The hike is 4 miles to the falls, making it 8 miles round trip. The first 2 miles or so are an easy hike, but we had a couple people bail on us before we ever made it here, to the 1.5 mile marker. 

The last mile or so of the hike is very difficult.  The steep incline (some of which required using rocks as steps) paired with leftover snow from who knows when (it was 70 degrees on Friday) made for some slow going.  It was, of course, all worth it when we got to the top.

For some perspective here are Jay and I in front of part of the falls.

Notice that stick to his right?  Now look at it again in this picture of the full falls.

Its as tall as us yet looks like a twig in comparison to the falls.

Once we got past the snow the hike down was a breeze - we stopped for some pictures by some of the biggest trees the Great Smoky Mountains National Park has to offer.  There was logging in the park in the early 1900s, but this is one area that remained untouched.

Not quite the Giant Sequoia, but huge for around here.

I said don't judge - I've gained and lost since then and I don't own those pants any more.

Our marathon training schedule called for a 20 mile walk this past weekend, so my training partner and I decided to do the group hike for 8 miles of that, then hit the road to log our other 12.  The road followed the river in several parts and was a refreshing change of pace to the same ole route we've been doing since we started the training.

I'm not sure if it was because of a different route, or the stretching we each did while the other was taking potty breaks, but we both felt stronger at the end of this walk than we did after the 3 mile run/14 mile walk combo. 

After dinner, I headed home with a can of dip & a redbox movie in hand.  Jay had also requested 3 bean burritos from taco bell but for whatever reason I just drove right by.  I blame exhaustion.  He forgave me, since I remembered the 2 most important requests he had.

It was up bright and early Sunday morning for Sunday school and church, then the whole family met at Cracker Barrel for lunch.  Most of the family had never seen our house before, so they followed us back to get the grand tour.  Apparently my house is cozy, because they settled in for the afternoon and didn't leave until my mother mentioned needing to get to church.

I spent the remainder of the evening on the couch either sleeping or reading my book - it felt incredible.  I typically don't like to work on Sunday, but for the past month or so have been rationalizing that I've been getting my ox out of a ditch. 

At this point I don't think that argument flies any more - if have plenty of time to exercise, I have plenty of time to clean.  I'm going to arrange my schedule so I'm able to get home early enough to clean, and I also have a fairly clear schedule on Saturday.  I'm hoping by this time next week I'll have my house in order.