A Family Fun Day!

We have had such busy schedules that we haven't spent much time together this summer as a family.  While looking over the family calendar one day I noticed that we had a couple of days where there were no activities planned or scheduled for anybody.  I decided that on those days we would do something fun to spend some quality time together.

On a Friday evening before the boys went to bed I told my family that on Saturday we were going to get up and pack lunches and head to Chillicothe, Ohio to go to the Hopewell Culture, National Historic Park.  The park isn't that big and the museum was small, but the best part had to be taking the hiking trail.  Each of the boys was able to check out an explorer backpack.  These backpacks had all kinds of guides in them and binoculors, even a notebook and colored pencils so they could draw things they saw on the hike.  The boys had so much fun using the binoculors to look for the birds we could hear in the trees.

After we were done exploring we decided to do some geocaching, but that didn't happen.  Instead we went to Hocking Hills to do some hiking.  I had never been there before and was in for a real treat.  There are six main hiking areas at Hocking Hills.  We went to three of them.  First we went to Rock House.  Rock house is believed to have been a hideout for horse thieves and bandits in the 1800's.  I do not like heights at all, imagine my surprise and anxiety when I discovered that in order to get into the cave I was going to need to climb 53 steep steps on the side of a cliff.  The best part of climbing up to the cave were the hugs and high fives from my kids, who told me that they were proud of me for putting aside my fear.  While in the cave a little boy shouted, "This is awesome".  I couldn't agree more, the cave was incredible!

After we left Rock House we headed to Conkle's Hollow.  This too was breath taking.  With the drought we have had the waterfalls were dry.  Before we headed out on the trail we had to decide which path to take.  Should we take the lower path or the one that warns you to have continuos control of children and that those afraid of heights should avoid the Gorge Rim Trail.  Yep, the lower trail was for us.  It was a lot of fun to see the boys having so much fun climbing and playing where the waterfalls should have been.

Once we were done at Conkle's Hollow we headed over to Old Man's Cave.  Once again the sceanery was breath taking.  We started our journey at the Upper Falls and the Devil's Bath Tub.  Then we continued down the trail to Old Man's Cave.  As we exited the cave our youngest, AD, asked how much farther to the cave.  We explained that we had just come out of it.  His response was "Oh, I didn't think that was a cave, but I guess it was".

On the way home we stopped off at Sumburger in Chillicothe, Ohio.  This was an interesting resturant.  To place your order you pickup the phone in your booth and tell them what you want.  When it is ready they bring it to you.  Everytime you need anything you pick up the phone and let the staff know what you need.

I had a wonderful day with the family!  I am looking forward to our next family fun day, which is a surprise for the boys.  Be on the look out for that adventure story.