It was my sister’s day off from work, and she was complaining about staying home. She said, that we seem to do all the fun stuff while she’s busy slaving away at work. (I mean grocery shopping is so very entertaining and all.) So to appease her, we decided to sacrifice a day of being home, and actually go somewhere.

Slightly last minute as it was, we decided to head up to the mountains!
The drive takes close to an hour, so we had to rise bright and early to get there before the heat settled in…(our usual upper 90’s).

After lots of twists, and turns, car-sickness, and ear popping from the elevation, we made it all the way up! We stopped at a trail near the top of the mountain that we had never explored before…and now it has got to be one of our favorite places.

It had rained the night before so everything was cool, damp and fresh. There were delicate wildflowers everywhere, wild strawberries, raspberries, mushrooms and thick spongy moss. There were majestic pines, birch groves, and so many grasses and plants that I couldn’t even begin to list them. From our vantage point, the misty view of the mountains in the distance, and the flowering meadow below was breathtaking. (I would really like to try painting it.) I felt like I was in Narnia, or Middle-earth.

But alas, the day was not without a few bumps in the road. (As with any adventure.)

Since this outing was quite spur of the moment, we were a bit unprepared, (camera-wise anyway). The wrong lens was on the camera, so I was very limited in what I could actually photograph. And secondly, the memory card was almost full so I had to quickly delete whatever I could, to be able to take a handful of photos.

The third very unfortunate event was a big-fat parking ticket. While we were off enjoying our adventure, we didn’t know how much our little walk was going to cost us. We hadn’t actually planned to explore this spot, and take off down the trail like we did. And after returning from our longer than expected hike, coming very close to cardiac arrest, while trekking back to the parking lot, (in the thin air, I might add), wanting only water and an air conditioned car, we were in for a surprise. Lo and behold, patiently waiting on our windshield was a parking ticket with an $80 fine!!

Here’s a lesson, kids: always pay the $3 day fee. Always.

While that put a significant damper on our mood, I can still look back fondly on everything else.

I’ll stop jabbering now, and share a couple of the photos:

While the day was a bit of a fail in the camera department (and parking -_-), I guess at the very least I was able to enjoy it with my actual eyeballs. And in the end, I’m so glad we took the journey.

And it was a fun day spent with my mom, and sisters……I guess.

Just kidding.