The Melancholy Begins, aka the End of Vacation

Always happens as vacation draws to a close, especially when you have a 12 hour car ride staring you in the face. So we planned to make the most of day 5. Hubby Nugget wanted to do an alpine slide, and I wanted to check out Dinosaur Ridge. It's nice to have plans.

So after our fabulous breakfast, HN headed out for a quick hike upstream, and Little Nugget and I chilled out at the cabin. She mostly watched her beloved Wonder Pets while I made some earrings, a long-overdue jewelry-making session. When HN got back, he asked if I wanted to go out for a little Mommy-only exploring time, and I said "Oh hell yeah!"

So he watched the Monkey while I ventured forth into moss-lovers heaven. I warn you now, there are a lot of glamour shots of moss in this next section.

In past posts, I may have casually mentioned that I enjoy a good moss. So much so that I tried to plant some in my garden last year, which had mixed results in that the squirrels kept thinking I put it there for them to dig up, and I was under the misconception that it was my garden and what I put in the ground was supposed to stay put. Long story short, my battle with the squirrels ended with me obsessively putting moss pins in the ground like staples to keep them from removing the green goodness, all the while muttering expletives to squirrels who mocked me from above, perched high in the walnut tree chirping at me the whole time. Smartasses. This year we called a truce: I vowed to not plant moss and they hop around and dig as they please.

I digress. Point is, I love moss. And at this place, I seriously could have just plopped down and rolled around in it if I wanted to. I chose to take pics instead. Aren't you glad?!

I have no idea what this is. It was really cool, though:

I just couldn't get over how lush it was:

This stuff was fan-like, so pretty:

This little spot was like a moss nursery, tiny little newborn, baby moss goodness! And lichen too! Behold:

I did manage to switch the camera off macro mode for a nice general shot of the forest floor:

Hubby Nugget had hoped to find some mushrooms, but didn't on his hike. I stumbled upon this little guy on an upturned tree trunk:


Not a morel, but a real cutie nonetheless! That pine cone in the corner was about an inch long, just to give you an idea of the mushroom size.

I also climbed up the rocks behind the cabin, checked out some caves (from a distance, was a little afraid that critters could be lurking within). By the time I got back, it was lunchtime, and it was pretty clear that we didn't want to go into town. So after lunch, we all took a nap, (yea!!!) then went out for more fun in the woods.

Our super-sweet outdoorsy girl in her element:


We were pretty sad to leave!

And that's how Team Nugget spent our summer vacation!

Nugget