August 22nd-23rd - 20-13

Fantastic weekend, all around. Spent the bulk of Saturday hiking. I mean a LOT of hiking. Wouldn't be surprised if we were short of 10 miles, which is quite a lot for a man of my girth. Up hills, down hills and through all manner of gorges and valleys. It was excellent. Hocking Hills is known for its caves and odd rock structures, and although that generally bores me, it was great finding them and quite impressive to see. Tieraney and I both had a great time, retelling old stories and connecting in a way you really can't do with kids around. It felt good.



Saturday night, we went on a moonlight canoe ride, which wasn't really in the moonlight. They started us early because of the total number of people signed up, so it didn't get really dark until we'd reached the end of the trip. The had s'mores for us and a bluegrass band at the end, but I just wanted to get home and do it in the hot tub. Never done it in a hot tub before, but Tieraney made it quite clear the night before that this night, we'd be doing it. Which we did.

Awesome.

And how do you top that? The cabin had satellite TV, which had the NFL Network, which had the Seahawks/Broncos game. I had hot tub sex and watched the Seahawks win in the same night. Score!

Tieraney and I also played some 221B Baker Street, which is my favorite board game despite the fact that she always wins. We'd played it Friday night, too, but I chose not to mention it because I was felt her getting nude in the hot tub was a better story. And it is.

Sunday, we did some more hiking, then drove back. Stopped in Columbus on the way to watch "500 Days of Summer," which Tieraney liked quite a bit and I found rather boring and messy. Could've been good, but it was aimless.

Picked up the kids in Ashland, then headed home. Overall, a fantastic weekend, although Hocking Hills is sure a weird place. It's mostly rural poverty. Plenty of trailer homes and dudes with no shirts and mullets standing out on their porches or looking at their truck engines. But interspersed are these huge, stately houses, most of which have cabins on them somewhere so the owners can make money off their land...kind of like where we stayed. The owners have 77 acres of wooded land, and they simply built two nice cabins on their driveway. Charged me $320 for two nights. Not a bad gig.

Sack. Life never saw us coming.

Life's ball. 2nd and 17 on their own 1.