It was super hard leaving the mountains, yet again. We had a wonderful time, despite some mild catastrophes. I'm serious - someone put the bad juju on us lol!! We kept smiling through it all though and had so much fun. We even hiked our longest hike yet - 7 miles round trip. It was during that trip that we got caught in a severe thunderstorm - another first for us. The weather was supposed to be completely clear, all day. When we were heading back out - we heard the first rolls of thunder. We picked up our pace and I really thought we'd beat it. But, we were only a mile into the hike with 2.5 more to go.
After about 10 minutes of jogging and really pushing through the hike the rain started...and then the hail. Golf ball size hail people. And it hurts. We got under a dense crop of trees and hunkered over the girls. Our rucksack held my camera and phone and we were having to use it to keep the girls from getting pelted. That's when the flash flood started...within minutes we had water on the trail up to our knees. We decided it would be safer to brave the hail and get out of there. The wind was strong enough to tear some trees out of the ground - so, we had to crawl over and under trees. The water was like ice water. It was insane. When we got back to the car we were all slightly hysterical I believe lol! The girls were champs. They were frightened and they cried, but, they did it. They stayed strong. They were troopers, I was so proud of them. So, lesson learned, never trust the weather reports and always, always bring your survival gear. We had decided to leave Mac's huge rucksack in the car and take mine because we didn't think we needed it. Dumb.
We visited several waterfalls, a couple of which were brand new to us. The best part was honestly just being together. We ate dinner together on the deck overlooking the gorgeous greenery and mountains. We all hopped in the hot tub together and played. We watched movies together. And, just as I promised, I didn't do any work or take any phone calls. It was bliss.
I haven't edited all of our photos...I took a lot with my camera (which survived the rain!!) and a lot with my iphone.
If anyone is interested in the tech details: this one was f/32, 1/3s, ISO 400 and I used my 24-70 2.8.
Details: f/29, 1/3s, ISO 100, used my 24-70 2.8.
These girls had such a fabulous time....none of them wanted to leave :(
Now it's back to work - and I have lots to catch up on and lots to do. I hope everyone had a wonderful week - and I hope that today is a beautiful one!! ♥
Comments