An Invigorating Hike

I do not remember the last time we had such a great weekend!

And don't all great weekends start with an awesome breakfast at a place like ihop? Well, let me tell you... Lucas had a tall stack of Cinnamon Apple Coffee Cake pancakes with whip cream... Josh enjoyed baby pancakes, egg and fruit. Matt loved his grilled cheese with apple and caramel dip. Jeff devoured his traditional big breakie with bacon and sausage. I savored a large cheese omlette with veggies. Yummmmyyyyy!!!! At ihop, they give you a karafe filled with coffee...just what we like too!

After this, we stopped off at Lowe's and while Jeff, Lucas and Josh bought RV supplies, Matt and me went and picked out a fragrant mini rosemary tree and a tiny red poinsettia to make us think of Christmas. Mr. Matt is starting the countdown to Christmas already... :)

Anyways, onto the invigorating hike. We went back home to pick up Willow and drove to Mission Trails Regional Park. Jeff salivated over the large rolling hills that verge on mountains in our eyes :) He loves hiking up large mountainous mounds! We found ourselves at the Old Mission Dam which Willow promptly jumped into! The park is made up of 5, 800 acres of both recreational and natural lands. The website indicates that, "Its rugged hills, valleys and open areas represent a San Diego prior to the landing of Cabrillo in San Diego Bay in 1542." If we could imagine it way back then, we would concur with that statement. It was so uncommercial, beautiful and inviting. Soon, it became obvious that we were approaching an area that had been affected by fire at one point as there were certain areas which were off limits. Apparently, there was a Cedar fire in the area in 2003. We walked towards Oak Canyon and the East Fortuna Mountain Region.

Along the way, the kids found small lizards, cacti, large winding trees and trails, mini snake holes in the ground, rocks, sand, hills and vast spaces of open land. Of course, we were all in our glory and walked as long as our water supply lasted. The kids didn't want to leave and we plan to go back again! Hope you like some of the pics here from our hike...