Visiting the Mountain

Having built a mountain on Tuesday, we proceeded to go to a mountain on Wednesday.  I like to think that Margaret and Ellie were overpowered by the majesty of the real mountains, and we will have no more foolishness about building mountain on their own, but I think that we are more likely to have redoubled activity next time we get near water.  

Anyway, we went with the modest plan of hiking around up at the ridge, and then getting some lunch up there because I vaguely remembered that they had put in a new snack area at the Ridge that was supposed to use locally sourced stuff that had to be better than the limp hot dogs they used to have sitting there for decades at a time, and Leo wanted to get there and wasn't interested in waiting to pack a picnic.  This was a mistake, but when these pictures were taken, we didn't know that.

To return to my subject -- Ellie and Leo started up the hill while I extricated Margaret from her straps, and then Ellie came back down.

I thought it was because she missed me, but it turns out she had ulterior motives.

So we hiked up to the top of the hill, and surveyed the surrounding countryside.

And then we decided to do more walking.  This may also have been a mistake.

The children flagged, and we were at the bottom of a rather sharp declivity, which meant that we carried them up another hill, and then down to the snack area, which was a fiasco from start to finish, but I think that it would be best to confine ourselves to highlights: I paid $9.50 for a ham and cheese sandwich that had some bizarre and unannounced pickle on it.  Ellie ate nothing but potato chips.  We couldn't pay with a card.  It took 11 hours or so for them to ascertain that we couldn't pay with a card.  There were no knives.  Leo spilled mustard and water on Margaret.  

So we came back down.  It seemed the best choice.