Stop Taking Pictures of the Fungus and Let's Go!

  The family went on a nice hike recently. It involved 120 stone steps, followed by a 1 mile uphill climb, followed by 50 more stone steps and culminated in a nice view of a rather small, yet tall waterfall. We took this trail because it looked on the map that it was the only path to the waterfall. But of course, as these things go, once we were looking down on the waterfall from way up high we could see the people below, on the nice flat path, gazing up at the waterfall.  Stupid map!

Then, having seen what the waterfall looked like from the top, we decided to also see what it looked like from the bottom. We went back down the 50 stone steps, back down the 1 mile hill and back down 120 stone steps. Then we took the other trail. It involved a nice flat path, then finally we could walk on the mostly dry, stone riverbed.

The dry part was nice. The wet part, well, it went like this:

Mommy: Oh, This is slippery.
Snickers: Ew! This is slimy!
Sweet Pea: Yuck! It's all slimy and slippery!
Mommy: Whoa! $#%$!@! Holy crap! I'm gonna kill myself on this.
Doodlebug: Whoa!
Sweet Pea: Look at the tiny fish! Whoa! Whoooaaaa!

And after several more treacherous minutes of slipping and sliding we decided to stay out of the water. It was only a matter of time before someone broke a bone or worse.

But overall it was fun. We got some exercise and there was almost no complaining.

One of the best quotes from the trip occurred when I stopped to take a picture. I squatted down and started snapping pictures of a rather large mushroom from a fairy point of view. Snickers yelled out "Mom! Stop taking pictures of the fungus and let's go!"

Well, I never! I happily continued snapping pictures. Then once I got sick of hearing Doodlebug ask "Can I step on it? Can I? Can I step on it yet? Huh? Huh? Huh? Can I step on it?" I stood up. And as mushroom pieces rained around me from a nicely aimed kick we ran off down the hill after the others.

(And yes, I did feel bad about murdering such a nice big mushroom, but there were plenty of others nearby and this one had lived a long life. It provided several seconds of joy for Doodlebug and isn't that what it's all about?)

Quack!