Schmitz 2018 Vaca, Post 13 - Acadia Ntl. Park, Part 4

Ah, fond memories of this from back when Lesley and I, along with my sister Doris, hiked Bubble Rock.

 A storm was blowing up while we were on top and a local fella politely reminded us that we should start down with the weather rolling in.

We heeded his message and started our descent with the rain picking up slowly as we made our way back to our vehicle.

That was the beginning of a very long, stormy night.  But that is a story for another time!

Today, Lesley and I are back on Bubble Rock but this time we have our varmints!

The varmint who loves hiking!  Caleb is ready to go!

I didn't take many pictures on the way up as I was far more focused on breathing, but here's the lad on top of the first "bubble".

The little "mountain goat" hiking his way happily across the terrain.

And the other boy who was enjoying himself but was nowhere near as enthusiastic as the smaller Chinese boy.

Rob would sometimes pride himself on taking the path less traveled, which would occasionally cause heart palpatations for his parental types.

Caleb and Mama blazing the trail.

One of SO MANY cool views!

Those low clouds moving in are a bit reminiscent of the storm that rolled in some 20 years back that I mentioned earlier.  These were not nearly as ominous looking though.

The rock that looks like it's sitting on the edge of the world.

This may be the point where Caleb was dancing, or rather, Flossing, when he stumbled and nearly went over the edge...  He thought it was quite funny and the other 3 of us had to restart our hearts.

Another angle.  Seriously can't believe that vandals haven't sent this over the edge yet...

Another view of why I love Maine.

Calebber and Dear ol' Dad!

We got them to stand mostly still and mostly smile for a pic at the top.

Ran into some other folks who were happy to take a fam pic for us!

I believe that sign says, "North Bubble Elev 9722 ft"

The sign says the same thing here.

There's hikers over there if you can squint hard enough to find them!

And so ends our hiking of North and South Bubble Rock.  Fun, fun times and the boys both enjoyed themselves, which is always a plus!

Drinkin' & Drivin'

This morning was a driving lesson with the reward being a trip to a new (to us) coffee shop in downtown Des Moines.

The coffee shop is Horizon Line and I figured that they could use a little business on Saturday morning as they probably wouldn't be too busy.

I.  Was.  Wrong.

It's obviously a VERY trendy place and I was probably two times older than the next oldest person in the place.  Seriously.

The coffee?  It was good but I'm not sure it was good enough (for the price) for me to endure the hipsters and oddball looks that I got.  

I ordered the flight.  The little cup was espresso, the white cup was a pour-over brew, and the clear glass was the iced version and all were from the same style bean.  The little espresso cup was a bit like a shot of whiskey.  The white cup was a good cup of coffee, but not above and beyond anything else I've had and the iced coffee was very light in flavor, but SOOOOOOOO good!

The larger American boy had a Lime Chai Latte that was freakin' amazing!  When he first took a sip, he said, "I can't tell if this is amazing or tastes like vomit.".  It had fresh lime at the top and by the time he got to the bottom of the glass, he was of the mind that it was pretty dang good.

2019 Mini-Vaca2, Eastern Iowa, Pt 2 - Maquoketa Caves State Park

Back to hiking at Maquoketa Caves!  Like I said in the previous post, we had the park pretty much to ourselves at this hour!

What could be better except to have it entirely to ourselves!?

That's one of them there rhetorical questions as I'm not sure there's an answer other than having the caves as part of your own back yard, which is ridiculous, which is where I tend to idle... ridiculousness.

From very near the parking lot looking down into the main entrance of the "main" cave.

The rock steps after the wooden steps end.  The little bright burst of light just right of center will figure into the story towards the end of the story.  Oh, it's 97 degrees outside at this point but as you approach this point, it's probably dropped at least 10 degrees, but the humidity, while already sky high, increases too, so you're still soaked with sweat...

Down inside and peering out.

Another one from down there and looking back towards where the light stream flows from.

Natural bridge.

You get weary of seeing steps like these when the temps are near 100 and the humidity is above 75% as well.   Honestly, it felt great for me and my back felt better than it had for a LONG time with the hiking and then new Serta air mattresses that we had recently acquired.

My fams!

Rob and Momma disappear while me and Caleb head back up to the road to see if we can figure out where they'll come out.  We didn't. We failed.  Mightily!!!  

The cool air coming off of this creek was so stupidly refreshing that I could envision myself staying here until nightfall. 

The top of Robby's head and other beauty!

Mama at the entrance of a cave that I do not recall the name of.

I love pictures like these!  I love it even more as that teenager in the picture is having a great time.  So great that he can't even hide it!

Caleb was yelling, "Dad, get a picture of Rob's butt!".    So, there ya go...  LOL!

He did everything possible to not point his own butt to the camera!

ICE CAVE, YAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!.   Seriously had to be a 25 - 30 degree difference from outside to inside of this God-given beauty!  There's literally frost on the ceiling towards the rear of the cave up on the domes.  Caleb's favorite cave!

Looking out from within Ice Cave.

There was a VERY recent storm that had blown thru as there were several trees down that still had green healthy leaves that had no signs of wither yet.

My fams,  again!

I mentioned the bright spot in a pic very early on and how it would figure into the post later on.  It's now later on.  We're going thru it backwards from the way that Momma and Rob went thru the first time.  They went thru it to see if it would be nasty for my surgically repaired back.

pretty cool stuff!

This is where it got "not so cool"...  I had to hunch over and walk for probably 35 - 40 yards.  I made it and it was fine but I certainly would not have wanted it to go on much further.

95 degrees?  No matter, we need to have a fire!

I miss Molly Bushman everytime I sit at the campfire embers and the family is in bed.  Make no mistake,  I'm happy, even ecstatic that my family is in bed and sleeping happily.   I, however, suck at sleeping.  I'm terrible...    But, Molly, with her similar crappy sleeping habits would have been right beside me and we had some fantastic conversations during those late hours watching the embers fade.

And so that ended the first part of our most recent trip!