This past weekend we had planned to do something extraordinary. Something we had wanted to do for several years now. We were going to go to Hocking Hills State Park in Ohio and hike to the area waterfalls that are supposed to be absolutely spectacular when they are frozen in the winter. Usually things are rather frozen here in the Midwest in the middle of January. No problem. Just pick a weekend and go. Everything will be great.

That is until we approached the designated weekend and the temperature began to climb. Until we started looking at the weather forecast for the actual weekend. Not only did it warm up into the 50’s in Ohio that weekend, it rained the entire weekend. Does that sound like beautiful frozen waterfall conditions to you? Nope. Disappointedly, we started looking at our options. This was our last weekend with the boys home from college so we couldn’t just postpone our trip. The plan was to spend time together as a family, so we would just have to do something else.
Now our family history of changing plans due to rain hasn’t always turned out so well. The last time we tried to find something else to do instead of hiking in the rain, we were in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and almost ended up getting stuck across the border in Canada; but that’s another story for another time. Needless to say, we approached the idea with uncertainty. We are hikers, not your ordinary sightseers.

We decided to start our weekend down in southern Indiana close to Louisville, KY with a sure win. We call it “The Trifecta.” We hit Panda Express, Bass Pro Shop, and Krispy Kreme all on Friday evening. Quite full and happy, we spent the night in a hotel down by the Ohio River before our excursion to the Ark Encounter in northern Kentucky we had planned for the next morning.

The Ark Encounter was amazing! There was not a huge crowd of people there, so we were able to take our time and look at all the exhibits. It is one thing to read about how big the ark was, but to actually see a full-size model was pretty incredible.

On Sunday, we went to the Newport Aquarium. Among our highlights were seeing the big shark tank, petting smaller sharks, and trying to find all the varieties of animals in each of the tanks. Some of them can hide really well! It gets a little embarrassing for the boys when little kids have to ask Michael and I to move so they can have a chance to find the animals. Oh well, if the boys are embarrassed, we’ve done our job.

We were able to sleep in all weekend, do some shopping, and in the evenings found a movie theatre that cost just $3 a person. All in all, the weekend was a success! We will have to wait for another chance to see the frozen waterfalls, but it gives us something to look forward to.

One happy momma,

Randi