Last weekend was the 5th annual UGO Family Retreat. The weather was perfect, sunny and warm during the day and nice and cool at night. This year we stayed in one of the rustic cabins so we could bring Chestnut--who might have been happier boarding at the kennel, he was his usual anxious self in a new situation, and barked continuously any time he was left alone in the cabin.
The cabins were pretty basic, with no bathrooms or cooking facilites--we had to walk to the lodge. It was also fairly bug-free, something I made sure of when we arrived. Nature is lovely and all, but I'm not fond of the bugs. Especially since, despite being only 150 miles from home, the bugs seem to be three times as big in Southern Ohio. The second night I looked up from the book I was reading to watch in horror as a spider the size of a saucer crawled across the outside of the screen. It was only a daddy-long-legs, but if it had come into the cabin, I pretty much planned on screaming all the way up to the lodge.
Satuday morning Ivy and Brian went for a short hike and found this adorable puppy running around in the woods.
We were at a church campground, so it wasn't that big, there were houses fairly close by. Brian and the girls drove around for while to see if they could find owners, but had no luck and finally drove into town where they found a friendly animal rescue who said they would take him.
The rest of the day was filled with boating and swimming
It's about 500 steps down to the lake from where I'm standing at the lodge. Really. I was dying by the end of the weekend. And being halfway down the hill in the cabin we had to walk those stairs a lot more often.
Saturday we went to Old Man's Cave. I'd never been there before, and I guess I was expecting something way out in the woods, isolated, far away from people. Instead, it's right near the entrance into the park, and on a Saturday it was absolutely crowded. We had brought Chestnut and I was having nervous palpitations (as was he, I'm sure) since he does not do well around people he doesn't know. The place was fantastically gorgeous, like something magical out of Narnia with stone bridges and staircases, tunnels and waterfalls. But I was so worried someone was going to try and pet Chestnut, I couldn't enjoy it very much and we didn't stay that long--which was fine, because it was warmer than we expected and the girls didn't want to stay long either.
And now we home and I think I may have finally finished up the laundry.
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