Spring Break

The begining bits of Spring Break really weren't anything specatular. I was generally in a bad mood, the weather was crappy, and I was without transportation. But my car did finally get fixed, and Riley and I went for a lot of walks down at the lake. Mom and I went up to see my Grandma, which was a good time. I always find it kind of neat when the 3 of us get together - 3 generations. We're all so much a like it can be a little scary. We visited a little pottery shop in downtown Titusville. It was a cute little shop. The little guy that owns was quite the character as well. We bought a couple of things, and left with a lot of ideas.

Friday was just a bad day, as March 10th has been for the last 5 years. Whether it was coincidence or not, my Mom and I saw a Bald Eagle perched on a nearby snag at Geneva Marsh on our way to Meadville. There was just something comforting, warm, and heart wrenching about the whole thing. I truely miss that man.

On the the weekend, I finally got to spend some time with Steven. Steven’s newfound love for waterfalls was cause for the first adventure of the year. Our destination was McConnell’s Mill State Park, however we took a small detour to Leesburg (Springfield) Falls on the way. Leesburg falls turned out to be much more spectacular then Steven had anticipated. I had been there before, so it was no real surprise for me. (Of course, despite my several suggestions to go there, we never went until it was his wonderful Idea.) We clambered down into the gorge and ate our lunch. Then Steven began shooting, while I just took in the surroundings. All of a sudden I caught a glimpse of something brown swimming around in the plunge pool--Muskrat. I smacked Steven on the back a few times and pointed. The little critter was either obvious to us (Which seemed more and more unlikely as time went on), or he just simply didn’t care that we were there. He swam around a bit and then clambered up onto the base stone, which the falling water ripples over before ending its tumble in the pool. He trotted around for a bit there in the shallower rapids, and then, feeling brave decided to cross to the bank. As it turned out, the rapids were a bit more than he could handle, and we saw the poor thing get swept over the edge, paws flailing the whole way down. It was truly the funniest wildlife moment either of us had even seen. We simply couldn’t stifle our amusement, and burst into laughter. Within a matter of seconds, a little brown head popped back up, and he seemed no worse for the wear. We watched him for a good long time after this, Steven taking full advantage of this opportunity. He swam about, messing around and eating what he found fit, and even braved the waterfall a few more times. He simply had no fear of us or even cared that we were standing there laughing at him. I almost think he was showing off. At one point, he perched himself a mere 3 feet from me and washed up a bit.

After a couple of hours, we figured we should get a move on if we wanted to find our waterfalls at McConnell’s Mill. So we said adieu to our little friend and continued south. We ventured to Alpha falls, Hell’s Hollow, Kildoo falls, and failed horribly in finding Breakneck falls. We got lost, fell down too many times to count, slide down ravines, rocks, and streams on our backsides, got scraped and bruised, and I was pretty much soaked. We loved it. We trail-blazed a “scenic” route to Alpha falls, only to discover a nice easy path upon arrival. Hell’s Hollow and Kildoo falls were a breeze to get to, with the single exception of the vertical decent at Kildoo. To add to the challenge, I decided to forget my trusty, sturdy hiking boots in Ohio and hiked all this is worn out, tread-less tennis shoes, causing me to spend a great deal of time on my ass.

But all in all, it was a fun time. Steven got some great photos. We spent the remaining hours of the day lazing around with that ‘I-got-the-shit-beat-out-of-me-today-and-I-feel-great’ feeling, a couple of our favorite movies, and homegrown popcorn. Life was good.

On sunday, we ventured to Erie. We went to the zoo and got rained on. Ate lunch at the Outback, and browsed Dick's and Borders. It was definatly good to be trudging around together again.

But now its back to Toledo. Anyway, I'm off to mess about like a muskrat in a plunge pool.