Sultry Saturday

Today was hot. Too hot to putter in the yard and, thanks to our frugal handling of the thermostat, too hot to be comfortable inside either. Ugh.

It seemed like a really good day to plan out weekly schedules for the history/literature/fine arts/writing/geography program we will be starting on in the fall, Tapestry of Grace, but then it wasn't. I have big plans for making notebooks for both Travis and Katie for each nine-ten week of TOG, so all their reading assignments, student pages, maps, etc. will be all printed out, put together, and ready to go every week. I will be organized six ways to Sunday. But today was not the day for mental effort. The program which looked so interesting to me in January looked just Deathly Dull today. I certainly Hope it is the heat!

Instead we went to Stone Mountain. Taking a break from the snakes, we went to Widow Falls today. As we walked up it became clear half of North Carolina had already had the same idea. Being antisocial, I suggested we look for another swimming hole, but Ed, whose idea of the ultimate vacation spot is the Seaside Heights, New Jersey boardwalk, said it would be even more fun with a crowd. And we did have a nice time. Travis slid down the long, bumpy, but not steep lower falls,

and Katie splashed in a quiet pool, but mostly what we did was watch crazy people slide down Widow Falls. I guessed it at about thirty feet high, but Ed says thirty-five, and he's better at estimating these things than I am. Anyway, it drops pretty much straight down, and there are rocks sticking up around the bottom. Travis asked, but I told him "No!"

(The person sliding here was a Very tall grown-up man. I was sure he was going to hit his feet on the bottom and suffer a horrific fate, but apparently the pool is very deep. Fortunately.)This is just a pretty rock.

The woods and the water were lovely and cool -- just the thing. When we stopped on the way home and got enormous ice creams at 5:30, I was sure I off the hook for dinner, but then it turned out that my family is surprisingly stuffy about these things and expected to be fed a "proper meal" anyway. (What they got was grilled cheese, though!)