Stay-cation in the Laurel Highlands - Let's Take a Hike!

My alternate title for this post was "Three Boys Pee Their Way Across the Laurel Highlands". Seriously, these kids are like dogs marking their territory! I bet my kids peed in nearly every spot I photographed. It's a guy thing, I guess.

We started out on bikes and noticed a little trail marker on the side of the path (we might have been peeing when we noticed it). Somehow, the kids' bionic ears picked up a waterfall (I seriously heard nothing) so we set off to investigate...on a nice marked trail.


Eventually, the Big Guy's GPS brain kicked in and he determined the trail was headed in the wrong direction. So, who needs a trail? Right? Those kids made me scale down a cliff (which they first peed off) and down into this valley,




and damned if they weren't right - jack pot!



Next, they painstakingly climbed up to the ledge next to the waterfall and peed (I am not kidding) and threw rocks down into the water. Big Guy quote: "These three kids can cause more destruction in 30 minutes than erosion accomplished in 20 years"


Fam-on-a-log (they stood on this and peed off the side)


When it was time for lunch, we stopped on the river bank for a picnic. The kids found this cool "tide pool" to explore.

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The highlight of the trip was viewing the big waterfall from the viewing deck

It wasn't long before they were down in that river themselves. They decided to built a raft (after peeing of course):



And wade into the water pulling up their shorts to reveal their chicken legs. Well, some of them.



Once one got in, they all got in and enjoyed riding some natural "water slides"

What a great day in the mountains. Did you know you can follow the Laurel Highlands on Twitter? Yep, mountains even twitter now. Get with it, man.



Tomorrow I will take you to Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater, so come on back now, ya hear?

Come Vacation With Me...The Laurel Highlands

Last week we had a little family "stay-cation" and hung around beautiful Western Pennsylvania for the week. Work was set aside for fun around our hometown. I thought you might want to see what the Laurel Highlands has to offer and give you some ideas for an inexpensive vacation at home.

We began our trip with a visit to Ohiopyle State Park to ride our bikes on the Youghiogheny River Trail. There was some sweating and swearing when it came to loading 5 bikes onto our brand new bike rack (little bikes are not built for these sort of racks), but after the Big Guy pulled it together, we were off!

This trail can be ridden all the way to Washington D.C. and we met a father and son doing just that - biking and camping for the next two weeks. My kids were mortified at the amount of gear the dad was making the son carry on his bike. I guess they aren't ready for that sort of thing yet.

A quick family pic and we began our ride:



We stopped on the wooden bridge to watch the white water rafters below:



The wooded trail is flat and beautiful. Easy enough for my Helper Munchkin, but challenging enough for an experienced rider. I never thought about the evolution of bike riding before this trip. My kids must have said 100 times "This is so fun!" I realized then, that kids today never ride their bikes TO someplace, just around and around for the sake of riding. Riding as transportation was new to them and they loved the feeling of freedom.

Pretend you're with us, just run a track in the background of birds singing, leaves rustling, and me yelling "Here comes another bike! MOVE TO THE RIGHT! The RIGHT! MOVE OVER!!!" Yeah, it was peaceful.



We were exploring a small waterfall along the trail when my kids noticed a culvert under the bike trail. Really, why bother with nature when there is a man made PIPE underground just BEGGING you to play in it.

My kids started posing and yelling, "Take a picture, take a picture!" So, I did.





All of this riding and picture taking went on for about 4 miles. Whoopee!!!

Then 4. Miles. Back. whoopee. Mental note: Don't wait until they are getting tired before turning around. Trust me.

If you do, you might have to bribe them to return by promising to buy them ice cream and the super cute ice cream parlor in town. I hope you brought money...




Come back tomorrow, we'll go for a hike and play in the river!