Purple Mountain Majesties

After church, the hubby suggested we do *something* today besides sit around the house.

Okay. I'm game.

We chose Caesars Head State Park because our older daughter had been there on an end-of-school field trip. The pictures she brought back were amazing. We've lived in Greenville since 1996, and I've known about Caesars Head since then (even driven by it by accident on the way home from a Thanksgiving buffet at an inn in North Carolina once on a foggy, foggy day...) but we've never taken the time to visit.

Today we did.

And wow.





First of all, it was 76 degrees at the top of the mountain. It was 84 when we started the climb. That alone was worth the trip.



At the lookout point, our heads were literally in the clouds. It was completely breathtaking. I've been in the mountains before, but I was just blown away by the view from this particular spot. The pictures do not do it justice. We were so very high above the trees, I felt like I was soaring.



Gorgeous. And it's been about 45 minutes from my house all these years. I gotta get out more.

We went down some steps and ended up in Devil's Kitchen, which is a tight space between two rocks.



The hubby was in a hurry to get out of there, so I couldn't take a lot of pictures (I was in front of him... I've known the man for 14 years and never once have I known he was afraid of tight spaces!)

Funny thing happened as we were walking out of Devil's Kitchen. The family went up some stairs, and I hollered at them to stop and turn around so I could get a picture. Aiden decided to go all Gangsta on me, so he did the crossed arms with the peace signs:



I snapped the picture, and then said, "Aiden, normal pose, please!" As I was snapping the second picture, the hubby fwapped Aiden on the back of the head, because he was still doing the Gangsta thing, as was Quinn (I realized when I was editing the pictures...)



Parent moments. Gotta love 'em.

It started pouring rain as we reached the end of the trail, but I managed to get this shot. I colored it black & white, and I think I'm going to have it printed as an 8x10. I like it.



We left the park, and about halfway back down the mountain road we stopped at Bald Rock. By this time it had stopped raining, so after a safety lecture we got out and explored some more. This rock was really cool, but I was sad that people have felt the need to leave graffiti on it over the years. Who knew my older kids would learn about bongs as a result of a trip to a beautiful state park?

Aiden: Mommy, look! Somebody spray painted a bag of burning money on the rock!
Me (absolutelt NOT thinking):Uh, that's not a bag of money.
Aiden: What is it?
Me, realizing what I'd just said: Uh, um, er... it's just NOT a bag of burning money.

And I should've left it at that, but Aiden is nothing if not PER-SIS-TENT. It didn't help that Camryn was eavesdropping on the conversation. Being highly inquisitive herself, she just wouldn't let it drop.

Me: OKAY. It's a bong. People put drugs in it, light it on fire and smoke it. It makes you act stupid like grown up drinks do when you drink too much.
Them Okay. Yuck!
Me: Just say no to drugs, y'all.

Nancy Reagan would be so proud.

I got these great shots on Bald Rock:





I love that one of my boys standing looking out over the edge of the rock. (Don't worry... it doesn't drop off. It's a gentle slope. It just looks like they're on the edge of the world.) I can't wait to scrapbook it. There's some kind of story to be told there about taking a leap of faith or something inspiring like that.

As we were walking back to the car, I came across this:



I knew I'd make my mark on the world, but I never knew it'd be like that.