Steve looked relieved and I told him he could read for a while, which prompted him to counter, "Oh! Can I have my 30 minutes?" to which I grudgingly said yes and he ran and jammed out on Minecraft in his tent.
It was super hot and we didnt really have any shade in our spot so we hung out at the Burdick's who were fortunate enough to have some tree action on their side.
We chatted and snacked and about an hour later I realized Steve was still playing on the kindle.
I yelled over that his time was way up and he yelled back through canvas that it was pretty warm in the tent anyway.
I could hear him fumbling around with the tent zipper and wondered to myself what was going on, as I was about to ask if he needed help, he stumbled out absolutely dripping in sweat and beet red all over.
"Get him some water! What happened in there?"
"It was just so hot!" Steve panted back as he gripped the table and flopped his butt down.
It was around 100 degrees and he was in a tiny tent with a rain fly and for whatever reasoning, cuddled up in his down sleeping bag.
I really need to reign in his Minecraft habit before it literally kills him.
Day 3 of the Berlin/BurdickPalooza we adventured all day.
Matt took us on a whirlwind excursion and stop one was the Lake Lenore Caves Trail.
I was pretty excited about it and so were the kids, the only sketchy part of it was that we had to hike up to get there.
I enjoy hiking.
Really.
But it was like, 3000 degrees outside and I could feel my shoulders turning from a nice caramel color to a sharp burnt sienna every second we were out there and everyone knows I don't believe in sunscreen.
Ah, what a conundrum!
Still I soldiered on.
For the family.
As we were messing around at the trail head a lady came down covered in sweat with a baby on her back, dog in hand and toddler afoot.I ran up to her and asked how long the hike was because none of the signs were really telling specifics and when setting foot on a trail I must know exactly how long I'll be laboring for.
"Um, maybe a mile or so if you go the right way. I actually mistook a few steps and was up there for way longer than I wanted to be."
Shit.
There isn't clearly marked signage.
Internally freaking out and thinking were going to be stuck up on Rattlesnake Ledge for 3 days and having to drink our pee while the search and rescue team frantically looks for us and then we will have to tell our story over and over again on shows like I Shouldn't Be Alive and the children will be haunted by the memory of this trip for the rest of their days and it will be all my fault, I thanked the baby wearing woman for her help and I think she was wondering why I spaced out for a solid minute before thanking her and walking away.
I stowed my irrational fears deep down in my chest somewhere and bravely soldiered on.
We hiked right on up and as it turns out, was only a mile, so it was pretty easy.
We came up into the cave and the views of the valley below were stunning, the cave was impressive also. It may have been more impressive if the Indian Cave paintings were still intact. Its really unfortunate that people who have access to things like this feel the need to spray paint bad words all over ancient artifacts.
Bummer for the rest of us.
We scrambled down the dusty ledges and just as I was starting to loosen up a bit and enjoy the hike I looked over at some dry grass and heard a slight rattle sound.
I froze.
My whole body tensed up and my heart leapt into my throat.This is it.
This is how I die.
No cell service, rattlesnake bite. I don't even know if sucking the poison out works. Would 2 of us die?
My children will have no parents.
As I tried to unstick my feet from the dirt and move them, quickly, one foot in front of the other, the wind whistled again and ran gently through the dry grass creating the rattling sound.
What the fuck?
As I shook my head and shouted, "Wait for me!" I thought about scheduling an appointment with an anxiety specialist because clearly I need it.
Before hopping back in the car our tour guide told us our next destination would be Soap Lake, where it is literally soap.
He went on to explain that its super detoxifying and everyone rubs the mud all over their bodies and its a really great spa treatment and your skin just feels so amazing after you wash it off.
We got in the car and I immediately called bull shit.
"He has to be exaggerating, I really doubt the lake is soap. How is that even possible."
As we drove over to this "Soap Lake" and ate cheeze-its in the car I was really trying to figure out what it could look like and where in hell we were actually going because this whole scenario seemed pretty impossible.
As it turns out he wasn't exaggerating, there is a lake made of soap and people were indeed covered in the mud from the lake from head to foot. There was even a sign talking about how detoxifying the waters were!
The lake was so weird, it felt like when you add salt to your water because you have really hard water at home, it was slimy and warm and the sand was silky and black. The lake itself was shallow all the way through, Charlie went out about half way and was still able to stand up. The kids were having a blast, it was super hot and the water was warm but not hot. We almost died the day before manually blowing up 3 floaties so they were cruising around on those things giggling in delight.I was still pretty skeptical about rubbing the mud all over me and was just warming up to the idea that it was on my feet when I look behind me and Matt is standing there laughing, covered in it, shouting about how wonderful it feels. Summer then motored over to me and said "Here you go Mama!", scooped up a bunch and rubbed it all over the tops of both my thighs.
"Thank you so much, I really appreciate that."
After we all washed off we let the kids play on the blazing hot playground and realized that our skin, did in fact, feel amazing; super soft and positively glowing in the sun.
I'll never doubt again.
Excursion 3 was a waterfall and I honestly cant remember the name of it, I know, way to go me.
Charlie told me to come and look at the bathroom, that there was something in there I would totally love, to which I replied, "I cant imagine anything that is in an unmaintained public bathroom that I would find enjoyable." Still he's my husband and I had been getting shit wrong the majority of the day so I eagerly followed.
Right up beside the door into the Men's room was a little nest of baby starlings.
I squealed because that's the appropriate reaction to anything that is tiny.
They were just sitting in their little nest looking at us, being so adorable that I almost stole one but somehow, refrained.
I would put a photo of the adorable baby birds <HERE> however, they are on Charlie's phone and I am a little too lazy to go get it and he isn't being very helpful right now either.
This is what I like to call a lose-lose situation.
Excursion 4 and the last of the day was a little stop off and The Dry Falls.
She complied.
They have a bridge/lookout area that you can walk out on and I would liken it to the Grand Canyons glass floor look out except, to my untrained eye, a hastily built version with just ropes on the sides that anyone who isn't giving their full attention to not falling off and dying, would do just that. Hence, the hand sewn together.
We went inside the visitors centers and checked a bunch of stuff out. The girls bee lined it to the stuffed animals and immediately began naming them and playing babies.
I overheard the Ranger that worked there talking about the Black Widow they captured in the basement and ran over to ask what she was talking about.
She was super excited and asked if we wanted to see a video that she had taken yesterday of it eating.
It was so amazing. I love bugs and this spider was so fast and terrifying; I loved every second of the video and shoved my nose right up to the glass on her cage. I don't think my counterparts were that excited about it.
We topped the day off with mini golf and mini ice cream and went to bed, exhausted and filthy and
happy.
Cheers
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