Cuyahoga

With the last day of our trip I wanted to try to arrange things differently.  I thought if I tired out the girls first thing, maybe the long stretches of driving would be met with less whining and crying.  It kind of worked...  The previous night we had ended up near Cuyahoga Valley National Park, so we checked that out for our morning excursion.

Poison ivy EVERYWHERE!  I feel so lucky to have grown up and done my exploring and hiking and camping where there is no poison ivy.  The girls are pretty good at staying away from anything green until I clear it.

Cuyahoga means "crooked river" in the native language of the area.  It is the site of the Ohio & Erie Canal, which opened in 1827.  The visitor center has part of a canal boat that the girls had a great time climbing on.

I also liked this display about how timber is cut from a log.  Pretty cool.  And I'm glad I can just run to lowe's and buy what I need...

We took a short walk on the tow path, which was really great.  There are so many bike paths everywhere.  I was quite envious.  I think tidewater Virginia is way behind the times in this.  You can even take a train from Cleveland, carrying your bike, then bike back along the towpath.  How cool is that?  I would love to come back here and spend some more time.

Then we went on a longer hike by this place, Brandywine Falls.

 It was very pretty, I'd love to see it when the flow is a bit higher.

 The girls at the fall overlook.  Then we started the loop trail, it was maybe a mile around, down to the river and back up.

 Miss M said this looked like a monster foot.

Miss R ran the whole way down.  She's a great trail runner!  Unfortunately, on the way up she was COMPLETELY out of energy, and succumbed to fall-on-the-trail-thrashing-and-screaming fits.  I see all these families going on super long hikes and wonder how the heck?  We'll get there.  Got to work up to it I guess.

 The girls waded in the stream for a long time.

 I gazed lovingly at the rocks.  Eastern Virginia has none.  None.  At all.  So I get a little rock sick, and enjoy looking at some good river or road cuts when I have the chance.

It was a very peaceful place.  

 Throughout our trip the queen ann's lace has been amazing.

So we traveled on to a few quilt shops; got to get in my row by row fix.  I managed to find a chick fil a for lunch, so they could have a nice long play, then we settled in for the long drive home.  If only I didn't have such a hard time staying awake in the car!!!  Or if only caffeine made me alert instead of comatose...  The seven hour drive took closer to ten because of my naps...  And the last three miles before home were killer. I almost had to pull over a take a nap in our own neighborhood because I was so sleepy.  And I came very close to just letting us finish the night in the car on the driveway because I was too tired to get us all in.

 We did find a lovely Maryland rest area with a play ground.  What is wrong with other states?  Every single rest area should have one...  They are a life saver.

We got home about two in the morning, and then, of course, I couldn't get to sleep...