Thursday, April 2, 2015

Spring Break


Today, we hiked the Appalachian Trail. 
Not the whole thing, naturally, but a part within fairly easy reach.  The boys have been asking about it, so we took a day of spring break to give it a go.  We decided to do a two-day trip with it, so yesterday, we drove up to the Catoctin Mountain Zoo to see a jaguar.


Mostly I thought the zoo was a disappointment.  With the late spring, most of the animals weren't even in their cages, but the kids got to feed deer and goats and alpacas, which S really loved.  Others had mixed feelings about it, especially J after one of the alpacas sneezed on him.  :)

But they did see the jaguar sunning himself in a warm corner and Bengal tigers doing the same.  There was an Amur leopard who woke up and walked around and chased his tail which they loved.  They liked the arctic wolves pacing around their cages too.  All in all, they enjoyed it, so it was a success.

We drove over to Cunningham Falls for a picnic (in the car, since the wind was pretty brisk) and a hike.


We checked into our hotel, drove around Hagerstown for a little while and saw the Jonathan Hager house (c. 1739) from the outside and introduced them to Singing In The Rain.  :)


This morning, we tried the Discovery Center in town.  M especially liked it, but S like the Titanic model and the Cessna you could "fly" yourself.  J liked the dinosaurs.  C had fun with the vision exhibit.


Then the Appalachian Trail.  The boys and G did maybe 3-4 miles, but once we reached the summit, M was done.  We played there for a while, waiting while the boys walked on to Annapolis Rock, but soon decided to start walking back on our own, and it was delightful.  Downhill helped her mood a lot and being able to go as slow as she wanted also helped.  


J especially wants to explore and go as far and as fast as possible, so breaking into two groups worked out pretty well.


Do you know, most hikers on the trail are so nice?  You can tell which ones are serious about it and experienced and they are so friendly.  It's almost like not being on the east coast.  :) 


Ta-da!  We definitely want to go again, maybe do a day trip or two this summer when there are actually leaves on the trees.  :)

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