A Tale of Fruit Loops and Hiking Trails: Chapter 1

Jack and I spent the last 5 days in Southern Illinois with my dad on a hiking trip. It was awesome! We left on Wednesday morning and made excellent time down there. We even stopped every 2 hours or so to let Jack walk around a little bit and stretch his legs. He was a very good boy in the car- read some books and slept for a little while. Every so often he'd have a toddler moment where nothing pleased him and my dad would have to search for the pacifier Jack threw or the book he tossed across the seat. Overall he was a good boy on the way there.

We stayed at a Hampton Inn in Marion, Illinois. Jack just loved walking up and down the hallway- screeching with excitement when he saw the pool or the vending machines. The best part of the whole trip according to Jack- were the FRUIT LOOPS! As you may know, they have a free breakfast every morning at the Hampton and that was right up Jack's alley! As soon as he saw the huge glass container filled to the brim with Fruit Loops (a cereal he's never had before) he got all excited and started pointing. And after that first taste... it was love! Or an addiction, however you want to look at it! For the rest of the trip he started his day with Fruit Loops in a bowl that we kept in the hotel room, followed by a real breakfast of fruit, toast, and milk.

On day one of the hiking experience, we ignored the forecast of never ending rain showers and drove to Carbondale, home of SIU and checked out the campus. They have a nice campus- a diverse student body, and even a beach! Very cool! We had lunch at Panera where Jack enjoyed the grilled cheese and REALLY enjoyed the organic yogurt and milk! After lunch we headed to Giant City State Park.

It rained on the way there, but was down to a sprinkle when we parked, and had actually STOPPED raining when we got out! What luck!



My dad got some information from the park office (did you know my dad wants us to bury him with all of his state park information pamphlets when he dies? Crackhead!) and Jack checked out the stuffed beaver, deer, and turkey. As soon as he saw this beaver, he shrieked with joy and ran straight towards it!





After sticking Jack into the backpack, which by the way is much easier if you take his shoes off, we started hike #1. We could not believe our luck as the weather continued to cooperate- it was sprinkling a tiny little bit when we started, and then ended soon after. The first hike took us into the "city streets" which were formed by these huge rocks that had split, forming narrow walkways in between. It was gorgeous. Usually we want to ring the necks of anybody who dares to spray paint graffiti anywhere in nature, but on a few of these rocks, some people had perfectly carved their names- 2 of the names were from soldiers home from the Civil War! The dates next to their names were from the late 1860's I believe. Touching the names that were actually carved by those people over a hundred years ago was really cool.





Hike number 2 found us passing a group of 6th graders getting ready to repel down a little bluff- wouldn't that be cool! The short hike ended up at a very cool waterfall- Jack really liked the water.


As soon as we got back in the car, it started to pour! What timing! On the way out we stopped by the lodge, where Jack made a new friend with the huge stuffed buffalo!


After the lodge we headed back to the hotel and then out for dinner. I took Jack in the pool when we got back, but it was chilly and he was not happy about it!




After that it was a bath and into bed. Since we just had one room, we'd turn out the lights when Jack went to bed- so my dad and I were stuck watching tv in a dark room from about 7 o'clock till it was time for us to go to bed! We watched a ton of HGTV shows. If you need to know how to flip a house full of rats and garbage, or get your house ready to sell, we can help you out!

Stay tuned for chapter 2!