A tradition in our family is to do a trip, or experience, or adventure for birthday, instead of a gift. Last weekend we embarked on a small trip in honor of Jackie's birthday, which was earlier this month. Originally, we had planned on going to Toledo for two nights, and possibly visit the Toledo Zoo (depending on weather), a children's museum, and enjoy the pool with Maia at the hotel. After thinking about it some more (and probably overthinking at some point), and wanting to not spend as much money, we decided to alter the trip. Instead, we just went out of town for one night, and just over to the Angola, Indiana area.
We accomplished the first goal of the trip, which was to have a hotel with a pool. We checked into the hotel as early as we could, and immediately went down to the pool. We ended up spending over an hour in the pool, with Maia enjoying every single minute of it. It was exactly what we had wanted, knowing how much Maia has enjoyed swimming. And seeing her spend so much time in the water was confirmation that this was a good decision.
We followed up our pool time with a take out order of pizza from Pizza King, a simple favorite of ours, and watching a movie all together in the hotel room. We were entertained by Shaun the Sheep, The Movie. Not necessarily anything overly special, but a fine evening nonetheless.
The following morning after breakfast, we headed to Pokagon State Park to walk/hike some trails and enjoy the Fall colors. And we were treated to a wondrous display of nature. It was my first time walking the trails at Pokagon, and it truly was a wonderful experience.
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| The beginning of our walk...lots of leaves. |
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| Enjoying our time together. |
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| Everywhere was like this - peaceful and beautiful. |
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| Good times indeed. |
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| All the colors. |
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| From the top lookout point at Pokagon. Beautiful view. |
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| Future tree hugger, apparently. |
Ultimately, the trail walking at Pokagon, and the trip in general, was a good reminder for a lot of things. But primarily, experiences don't have to be sophisticated or "fancy" to be special and meaningful. Its something I think many of us know, but its good to be reminded of that fact from time to time. We cut back on what we thought this trip would end up being - but a couple hours of walking through some beautiful woods and seeing the changing of the season, and doing so together as a family, made the trip and experience everything we wanted.
“We spend precious hours fearing the inevitable. It would be wise to use that time adoring our families, cherishing our friends and living our lives.” - Maya Angelou
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