To celebrate his 2nd week of vacation, Neal and I took a day trip to Multnomah Falls on Monday. Our other option was going to the ocean, but we decided it would be more fun if we could spend the night, so we did something a little closer to home. I don’t think either of us planned on hiking as much as we did, because we did not come prepared with good hiking shoes and were wearing jeans. It was incredibly hot, and I was longing for some khakis! Luckily, we ate lunch at the Lodge before heading up so the lack of trail food wasn’t that bad, but the lack of water about killed us! We probably should have turned around once we got to the top of the waterfall, but we pressed on. It was so beautiful and the next mile was so peaceful since very few people went off the beaten path. As rugged as some of the non-paved trail was, it was absolutely worth it to truly enjoy nature alone with my husband! A little over two miles up the mountain, we ran into a work party repairing part of the path that had been washed away. They would have let us by, but Neal and I are both glad that we turned around. We were both feeling dehydrated and needed to get some water. Unfortunately, Neal was far worse off than I was and developed an incredible headache on the way home. I slept most of the way home, so I felt fine! What surprised me about the trip down the mountain was that it hurt more than going up; my feet were killing me! Neal had me tighten my shoelaces and that made a big difference. Honestly, my feet were the only things that hurt on the trip. My legs weren’t sore at all during the hike or the next day. Yet, my hips were so sore the next day; I couldn’t believe it! I’m only 42 and they made me feel like I was 80…this is not a good sign for my old age.

This LO is a direct scraplift from page 19 of the Summer 2009 Idea Book. I absolutely love this Back Country paper packet and need to find my other outdoor/camping photos to finish off the packet. It’s hard to see, but I added grunge masks on the 5×7 photos and an overlay on one with text that reads, Multnomah Falls. I’m practicing my Photoshop skills!