Short Reprieve

Last fall we went on an extended vacation to Tennessee and Kentucky with the boys, knowing it was probably our last big trip for a few years. When JT decided he'd be taking community college classes this fall, we were pretty sure our weeks would be too full for any traveling. But once he scheduled his classes, we found we could squeeze in a short trip if we tried.

The last few times we have stayed in a state park cabin, we have visited Moraine State Park. This year, because we booked at the last minute (last minute for the modern cabins in state parks is about 3 months in advance) we couldn't get a cabin there so we chose Pymatuning State Park instead. We have stayed here once before, four years ago. It has a huge lake, but not very many good hiking trails, which is what we usually look for in a park. Today we hiked for about 2 hours and that covered more than half of the trails here. We're still having a good time, mostly just relaxing and getting away from our crazy schedule.

But learning is still happening! We saw a tree that we couldn't identify. Fortunately, we came upon a helpful sign telling us it was a Tamarack. The fact that the trail name was Tamarack Trail should have been a clue. JT wanted to look up more information about it, so when we got back to the cabin we found a website and discovered that the Tamarack is a deciduous conifer. That was a new one for me!

We'll be meeting up with friends for a visit tomorrow and heading back home Saturday morning. We had to turn this into a working vacation because JT had to bring a pile of chemistry homework with him to keep up with his class. When we get back home we'll have to get right back to work. I'll have school planning to do and JT has a chemistry report to research and write. EM's schedule is still not as full as his brother's and I hope we can keep it that way for as long as possible.