Family Fun Day!

Rick and I recently discussed whether or not to try to fit in another family vacation this summer or not. We talked about the possibility of perhaps spending some time in the White Mountains or going to the New Hampshire shore for a few days. In the end we decided that it might be fun to do a bunch of day trips in the local or semi-local area. So we are making that a priority for this summer in lieu of a longer trip that would potentially be farther away. Some of the possible excursions included geocaching adventures in the surrounding wilds, or longer rides to the Berkshires, southern VT or Boston to do various kid-friendly attractions.

The other night we spent some time looking at the geocaching website for easy cache sites in the Berkshires. We actually found quite a few that looked fun (and had some interesting natural attractions to see) so we downloaded the list to Rick's PDA and decided to 'wing' it from there.

In the morning we made a hearty breakfast of pancakes, sausages, bacon and juice and tanked the girls up for the adventure ahead. We found some small treasures to leave in exchange for new treasures found in the caches and we piled in the car with a bunch of water, some snacks, and the GPS and off we went!

The girls listened to an audio book (Dinosaurs Before Dark, Mary Pope Osborne) on the drive to the Berkshires. And since I had yet to drag all the crap art materials out of the back of the car from our Virginia trip they were able to draw and make artful creations for the remainder of the drive.

The first cache site turned out to be a dud. The write-up about the cache did not include any information on where to start hiking so we used the GPS as our guide, but we were not able to find the trail head. In doing some research once we got home we found that we were actually located on the opposite side of a substantial river from the cache site so we were essentially barking up the wrong tree anyway. We hope to go back in the future and find that cache along with two others that are located in the same general area. Now that we know where to go to find the parking lot and trail head so we should be a tad more successful! So, after a short delay and missed opportunity at that cache site we consulted the PDA and chose a second site to attempt that was a short 10-minute ride away.

The second cache attempt was located on land owned by a private conservation organization and therefore we figured there would be a well-marked trail and probably some decent parking to boot. We found the parking lot easily and got E loaded into the backpack for this hike. It was a loop trail that climbed to the top of a large hill (coming from the land of sand dunes I would personally call it a small mountain but Rick would strongly beg to differ) and back down again and the trail meandered through a large meadow full of cows and even met up for a brief time with the famed Appalachian Trail. On the way up the small mountain hill we came upon this rather large rock alongside the trail that begged to be climbed on...


The girls did great on the climb up the top and once we got up to the overlook we unloaded E from the backpack to let her have a look around.


We searched around for the cache...



...and managed to find it pretty quickly.


The girls had fun looking through the cache box and choosing a trinket and we left a couple of new trinkets in their place. I signed the log book and then we explored the overlook some more and happened upon a small wild blueberry patch that only yielded a few berries each but was still fun to find. There were a few odd blackberry patches that we found on the way but none were ripe yet. If we make it back next year we'll have to try for early August and get the blackberries in season!

Rebecca took this picture of Rick and I at the overlook...


After the hike back down to the car we drove to nearby Great Barrington to grab some lunch. Rick had done a bit of research and found that there was a local brewery/restaurant in town so we headed there for some grub. Rick enjoyed a nice brown ale called "Old Pluto" with his lunch (and I picked up a growler of the stuff for us to take home and enjoy since I was designated driver for the day). As a treat I got a HUGE slab of chocolate cake after lunch...



... the damn thing was too big to fit on the plate! I ate some of it and shared some with the girls but I literally took home about two-thirds of this piece of cake. Insanity at its best!

With full bellies we got back in the car and decided that we would try for one more cache before heading home. (Nothing like the 18 cache days that Tuxbaby has managed recently, but hey, we do what we can! LOL)

Rick consulted the PDA and found a cache site located near a river with a waterfall. We knew the girls would enjoy a splash in the river and the cache description indicated that the cache was not far from the parking area so we figured it was the perfect end to the day. The cache was indeed fairly close by and we found it without much difficulty. The girls made their trinket trade and I signed the log book and then we got down to the serious business of playing in the river! The first area we chose to let the girls loose in seemed a bit risky for little Miss E so she was stuck in the pack and none too happy about it...



The older girls were having a great time, though...


Then we moved a bit further downstream and found a great little area with a small pool, no rushing water, and large boulder to shelter and more or less contain E (with a little help from Mom-turned-baby-gate). I stripped E down to her diaper and let her have a go at it...



The older girls ventured a bit farther afield and got a bit damp but certainly had a ball...



They really want to go back (or at least to another fun waterfall or two) sometime this summer. We told them that could be arranged and we will plan to bring bathing suits and towels so they could really go to town!

The ride home was uneventful. R read some of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets to herself, A ended up napping (guess the hike up that mountain hill did her in!), and E should have been napping but was way too overtired and ended up being kind of whiny and fussy for part of the ride. We got home and made a quick dinner and then got the kids to bed by about 9pm. Both Rick and I were exhausted and so glad to get to bed, but overall I think we all had a great day. And the kids were tired enough to actually sleep in past 8am this morning. Will wonders never cease?

I'm already hoping for more good weather next weekend and looking forward to our next "Family Fun Day"! Time to start scouring the maps and the geocaching website for more fun waterfalls...