Climb, Climb UP Stone Mountain

Last Friday morning I rolled over in bed to face Dave, who smiled and said, "It's going to be a beautiful day, let's hike up Stone Mountain!" My response was something to the effect of, "when hell freezes over..." and then, "I'm not carrying anything or anyone!" For those of you non-Atlantans, Stone Mountain is a huge rock/mountain outside Atl. You can walk around it, you can take the vernicular up to the top, or you can hike the 1.3 mile trail over boulders, straight up the side of the darn thing. You can also camp there, or go fishing in the lake, in the summer you can watch a laser show where all the "locals" come out and holler about the South rising again (oh did I mention there is a LOT of history about the Confederate states and memorials about when each state seceded from the union, anyway! Now since it is all owned by Dolly Parton, there are also other amusement park-like attractions.

In any case, an hour or so later, we had the girls loaded up into the car (they were so excited) and headed to Waffle House for breakfast and then onto SMP. I was skeptical of making the climb with the girls, but I tried to trust Dave, and to my great surprise we all lived through the excursion. Hadleigh hiked the entire thing, which I found amazing because it is not easy, and Annelise hiked most of the way up and then Dave carried her on his shoulders back down. And I did not need anyone to carry me either! The nice thing is that since we were hiking with the girls, I had an excuse to go slow. And then it does make a difference when you make the hike at 8am in April, rather then at 5pm in July! I even received some cheers from fellow hikers (claps and everything), I'm sure they were secretly hoping to watch me roll down the mountain.

So I guess we can check that one off our list for the year, although I have a feeling Dave and Hadleigh will make that trip again this summer.