The Hocking Hills Chronicles

By Piper On August 27, 2010 Under General
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~*~*~Sunday~*~*~

Ben, Revan, and I arrived at our Getaway Cabin in Hocking Hills.  After completely moving all of our stuff into the cabin and finally sitting down to catch our breath, we were able to explore our new BEAUTIFUL home for the next 5 nights and days.  The cabin is called “The Shawnee” and is set  back into the woods.  It isn’t far from other cabins but we can’t see any of them so it does create the feeling of being totally secluded.  Probably my favorite discovery at the cabin was finding the the game and puzzle stash in the coffee table.  There is a lit “feeding station” outside where one can put food out to see if deer come to eat at night and food is sold at the front office.  Ben and I definitely bought enough food for us to enjoy the wildlife for the rest of the week.  I feel as though there will be fat animals loafing around in the forest…

For our first night in we are having Mexican Hamburger Helper.  Hopefully, there will be enough leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

I set up the XBox and of course the TV is a little too out of focus for us to truly enjoy it.  I managed to make it a little better if we want to play single player games but there will be no movie watching or killing marathons.

Tonight, we are going to plan some of our activities for the next week whilst soaking in the hot tub!!!!

~*~*~Monday~*~*~

Ben and I woke up excited to go kayaking. But, we knew we needed to run to Wal-mart for water shoes and a swimsuit (because I forgot mine). We couldn’t find water shoes at Wally World so we went next door to a Shoe Show and both ended up getting Tevas. LOL Now we are shoe buddies!

Sadly, when we got to the kayak place it was closed and won’t be open until Wednesday.  Oh well…it gives us something to look forward to later.

We went home for a quick lunch (we did have those leftovers) and to pick up Revan.  We traveled to Cedar Falls, Old Man Cave, and Lower Falls.  There were lots of stairs and Revan kept running ahead and looking back at us like we were slowpokes. Of course, all the little girls we passed LOVED Revan and called him a baby puppy. He is sort of a Hocking Hills rockstar!

After a quick dip in the hot tub, Ben made hummingbird nectar to put in a feeder that was here. Then we had delicious brats we brought here from Miller’s Meats in Findlay.  I took a nap and then woke up to bake some cookies.

Going to go read some before bed. Couldn’t ask for a better first full vacation! Ben has been so sweet and I’m so happy we finally took the time to honeymoon together. :-)

~*~*~Tuesday~*~*~

We tried to get an early start to beat the heat and people at Ash Cave and Rock House.  It definitely worked!  Ash Cave is absolutely staggering in sheer size and stillness.  It felt like you had stepped into a time machine and were discovering the perfect location to house your tribe.  On the way to Rock House, we stopped by the Ash Cave Fire Tower.  Ben was brave and climbed almost to the top, while I decided to stay on the ground.  There was a small field full of butterflies next to the fire tower.  Ben claimed that the butterflies were taunting him because they kept flying close and landing, but then running away right when he tried to take a picture.  He managed to capture some…just barely.

Rock House was the trickiest spot to get to.  It was all steep switchbacks down hill and then an open staircase carved into the rock.  It was rather daunting but worth it!  The cave wasn’t big (*granted we didn’t continue on the path, there could have been more*) but it was easy to stand in and move around.  A flock of pigeons decided to make it their home.  When a bunch of pigeons coo at once it sorta sounds like a large animal is growling.

We decided to have lunch at a local favorite tourist spot called Grandma Faye’s.  It was a small deli, general store, and souvenir shop.  We bought some local wine and will try it with dinner tomorrow.

For lunch dessert, we went to another tourist spot for ice cream.  It was much smaller than Faye’s, but you could order soft serve ice cream and have flavor syrups blended into it.  I had white cake batter and Ben had cheesecake!

We went back to the cabin for a dip in the hot tub followed by a nap.

Ben then grilled some scrumptious chicken for dinner which we ate on our deck.  Dinner was followed by a nice walk around our cabin area.  A black cat, named Misty, that lives in the area and is a bit of a celebrity RAN to us when we were about to start the trail.  Ben and I said hi to her and petted her and then preceded to walk on.  Well, she followed us!  She kept pace with us for a while then began to slow down.  We called to her and she ran ahead of us and promptly threw herself on the ground for us to pet her some more!  We did….then moved on again.  She kept following until we could tell she was a little unsure. Then I picked her up and carried her for a long time.  Ben spotted a deer and the three of us were still.  Ben with his arm around me and me holding Misty. LOL!  It was too cute.  The deer ran away and we continued on our journey. Misty got tired of being held when we were close to the end of our trip but she did stay with us to the end.  One sad thing though was that she did sort of try to follow us towards our cabin but she didn’t cry or try to come in or anything.

Ben and I ended the day back in the hot tub because it was such a gorgeous night!  This has been my favorite day thus far!

~*~*~Wednesday~*~*~

Today was all about the kayaking.  Due to the trip to Wal-mart earlier in the week for all our kayaking stuff, we were already prepared for leaving!  We woke up, got dressed, and left! (*After morning bagels of course.*) I also think the cat Misty slept on top of our truck because there were little paw prints on the windshield.  We received a discount at the kayak place, Hocking Hills Canoe Livery, because it had been closed the past two days.  So YAY!  It was nice getting there right when the place opened because there was no waiting.  We got our paddles/lifevests and then immediately went to the vans that take you to the launch site.  We were the first group launched that day!  Ben and I quickly paddled ahead of the group and lost them.

We got to be alone on the river almost the entire time.  It was so pleasant!  The river is a little shallow though and you tend to get stuck on the bottom a lot.  Also, because the current isn’t very strong you end up paddling the whole way and use a lot of energy.  Sometimes you just wanna coast ya know?  We stopped once along the way for a local photo op called the Rock Bridge.  You have to hike a little from the river but it was well worth it.  It looked like something in Lord of the Rings.

When we walked back to the river, a family that had launched with us but was in a canoe arrived.  Ben helped them get to shore because they were having trouble getting onto the bank.  Isn’t Ben dreamy?

Anywho, the only other notable thing about the kayak trip was that we accidentally stopped at a different canoe/kayak livery.  We thought it was the end of our trip.  Well,  I fell getting out of the kayak.  Ben and I were sort of annoyed because the “dock” was extraordinarily difficult to get to, it was hard to get out of the river, and no one was around to help.  It was asking for someone to fall.  It wasn’t serious and all I have are bruises but it was still frustrating.  Once we confirmed that this was the wrong place, we got back in our kayaks and paddled the 1/3 of a mile to our place.  It was a night and day difference! You can easily paddle right onto the FLAT bank and there was a man to help everyone.  So if anyone reads this and goes to Hocking Hills, you need to use the Hocking Hills Canoe Livery and NOT the Hocking Valley Canoe Livery.

We stopped by a Christmas store, Candle store, and Wind Chime store on the way back to the cabin.  Of the three, the wind chime store was the most interesting and fun.  They was a wind chime set the size of me!

We got to the cabin and had a dip in the hot tub (*as usual*).  We ran to the office to get some DVD’s for the coming nights and returned to the cabin for a nap.  Now, we are getting ready to have our dinner of crackers, meat, cheese, and the local wine (Raven’s Glenn) we bought yesterday.

Tomorrow, we were going to do more exciting things! BUT, seeing as it’s our last day, we kinda just wanna sit and do nothing.  So we are going to hang out at the cabin and enjoy each others company.

~*~*~Thursday~*~*~

We did exactly what we said we would.  We had a nice time staying in the cabin.  Ben played Starcraft II and I read my book.  Ben grilled some delicious steak (*again from Miller’s Meats*) for dinner.  We watched a movie, Evan Almighty, then soaked in the hot tub under the stars.  We talked about our favorite parts of the trip and had the perfect ending to a perfect vacation.

~*~*~Friday~*~*~

Got up! Cleaned up! Left! :-)

 

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