Hiking at Amicalola Falls

Wendy wanted to go hiking and asked if we wanted to go.  Todd had a tennis match, so I packed a picnic lunch and packed up the kids to drive up with Wendy and her son Logan.  Owen mounged on grapes.

Chloe enjoyed a jelly wrap since she was catching a break from her 'healthy diet.'

It was an absolutely gorgeous day with no clouds in the sky and highs around 78 in North Georgia on this afternoon.

Wendy brought back a park map for us and was happy with me before we started hiking.

Owen wanted to jump in after seeing her play pat-a-cake with Logan.

Once Owen started playing, it looked like a lot more fun to Logan :)

After our picnic lunch, we drove farther into the park and walked over to the top of the waterfall.  The kids thought they should climb the fence at the top so they could see it better.

Here is the view from above.

See?  Everyone is still happy with me.  It will only be 425 steps!  No problem.

And so, we start our descent.

Still happy with me.  :)  By this point, the tops of my thighs were shaking good.  Even when I stopped an rested.  Very bizarre.

Chloe was being a bit of an all-around pill.  Her face is a pretty good reflection of how I felt about her behavior on this hike. :|

Who wears jeans in the middle of summer?

This is at the bottom of the 425 steps.  The kids thought they should climb up the rocks on the side of the path.

They made others a bit nervous that they would fall, tumble across the path and down into the continuing waterfall about 10 feet away.

Not so happy anymore.  The original plan was for either Wendy or myself to hike back up to the top.  Alone.  Without any kids or 30 pound backpacks and then drive around to the bottom to collect the others.  Did I mention we hiked down an additional 175 steps before turning around to start our hike back up?  Yeah.  Not happy at all.

Here we are coming back up from the bottom of the additional 175 steps we hiked down from AFTER the 425 steps we hiked down first.  It was just a few steps, really.

It was a pretty waterfall.

Unfortunately, there wasn't any really good vantage spot to photograph the entire waterfall.  So much of it was blocked by trees, leaves or steps.  So this was as good as it got.  :)

Owen was happy the whole time.  But then, he's my happy boy.  This hike didn't phase him one bit.

At least someone was still happy with me :)

Others?  Not so happy.

Once back at the top, we let the kids play in the stream leading to the waterfall.  The kids had fun walking in the water, even though it was extremely cold.

Once their feet were like icicles, we got out and the kids all had fun high-fiving Ms. Wendy.

We watched our shadows.

And then we headed home.  Before we got out of the mountains, we noticed this lone chimney standing in an empty field we hadn't noticed on our drive up.

It had two sides where fires could be burned inside, which made me wonder what the home looked like surrounding this double fireplace.

It was a wonderfully fun day, in spite of shaking quadriceps, a not-so-happy friend on the return uphill climb and a non-listening daughter.  For the next three days, it was my calves that reminded me of this fun.  Every time I walked down the steps inside our house.  I found out I had muscles I didn't even know were in my body.  And Owen?  He felt no pain or soreness in the following days.  I was glad for him, but thought to myself that I wish I had a little more youth in me.  Now I know I need to work harder to get that back!