Monday, August 31 -- Hike with the boys, Gabe swimming with Justin, Caleb sleeping through dinner
So after getting our first good night's sleep, I was anxious to get out and explore, and the boys needed to move around a little, too. We ate a little breakfast and the three of us set out for a nice morning hike. The town we were staying in was a tourist-y little town with all kinds of shops and such. Fortunately, the hotel where we stayed had its own hiking trail, away from all the shops and all the tourists. Well, all of them except for the boys and me. I didn't bring the camera along, and I wish I had. The trail led through woods full of wild apple trees. Caleb loved picking up the apples and throwing them in a big mid-trail mud puddle. At the end of the wooded trail, you have to climb up these little boulders onto a rock path that follows a shallow river. Caleb loved sitting on the edge of the path, throwing rocks into the river. Anyway, we hiked for a while, just to see where the path would take us. Around one bend was a great view of one of the rock-faced mountains (not sure which one). We eventually decided to turn around and head back to our room. We don't get to hike (in nature) much, and I think it was Caleb's first time joining Gabe and me for the exploration of a hiking trail. It was just really fun to get to have that time with the boys. I was impressed with their endurance (though I did have to alternate piggy-back rides on the return trip). I was also impressed with Gabe's attention to the route we took. On the way back down the river path, I was about to obliviously walk right past the boulders we needed to climb down to get back to the apple tree path back to the hotel. Gabe stopped me and was like, "Daddy, don't we need to go that way?"
Later that morning, my great friend Justin joined us for the day. He's been my friend since the 6th grade, when I moved to Maine. He always does such a good job interacting with the boys, and they, of course, took to him right away. I think he must be magic. Both boys wanted to hold Justin's hands as we walked into Friendly's for lunch (impressive in that Caleb is going through this independent thing where he refuses to hold someone's hand in a parking lot, etc..."No. I got.")
Anyway, we had some good food and ice cream at Friendly's (rushed a little by Caleb's impatience with sit-down restaurants) and went back to the hotel to swim in the indoor pool. Again with the magic: Gabe is normally terribly timid around a (grown-up) swimming pool. With me, he clings tight and will barely sit on the edge and plop into the water for me to catch him. He went to Justin, and within minutes, he was leaping a good 3 feet into the pool for Justin to catch him, putting his face in the water, and even walking on his own in the 3' section, where the water comes up to his chin. It was pretty fun to watch.From there, we went outside for a while. Justin and I played shuffleboard. Yes, shuffleboard. And it was actually pretty fun. Wow...this is what "old" feels like.
After a long and active day, we decided to drive to a restaurant that was 20 minutes away for dinner. The place was called The Red Fox (nothing to do with Sanford & Son). The greatest thing...it had a movie room for kids to sit and watch a movie while we waited to be seated. No wait, that wasn't the greatest thing. The greatest thing was that, on the way to the restaurant, Caleb fell asleep. And stayed asleep through dinner. And we go to take our time and eat a relaxing meal and catch up with Justin.
