Saturday I had the entire day off. I'm splitting this day into two installments of "My Granola Weekend." So part one opens with loading up a camp van with about 60 sack lunches and coolers and heading about 45 minutes north east of the ranch followed by a school bus of church group kiddies to a place called Shackelford Falls. It is absolutely amazing! We ate sack lunches on the various rocks in the river and then the cliff jumping began.
No (Mom..I know you are reading this and freaking out....) this was not impromptu cliff jumping....this was planned. It was the entire point of going to Shack. There is a "natural water slide," a "low rock" (just over 10 feet up) and a "high rock" (about 20 feet up) above a basin about 20 feet deep of freezing cold mountain water. You climb up a rock face and then jump off the top into the frigid waters beneath and then swim against the current either to the person holding the big metal hook on a rod to pull you out, or pull yourself out with every ounce of upper body strength you have. I'm not really a huge fan of being cold...ever...and certainly not cold and wet, so this wasn't really my thing. However, I'm also not one to pass up a good opportunity and I do like a bit of adventure, so I climbed to the top rock with the best of them and got out on the edge...and froze up. We're talking knees locked, heart pounding, chest tight. I also climbed down like a champ....but not the whole way. When I reached the "low rock" I took the plunge and am proud to say that I pulled myself out without the assistance of the strong man and his metal hook. And that was all I really felt I needed to accomplish for the day in the danger category. :)
After the falls we headed to Etna to the old time drug store for ice cream. I changed from my cold wet bathing suit into my "flowy hippie pants" (love me some sale racks at Anthropologie) and a dry top and headed in the store. Now I've always heard jokes about washing dishes to pay for one's supper...but have never actually experienced this....until Saturday. The drug store owner cheerfully tossed me a dishrag and said if I washed dishes my ice cream would be free. David and I hopped behind the old timey soda counter and he collected money while I scrubbed away. (By old-timey I mean old timey. If you order a soda they pour syrup into a cup and then add seltzer water from a special metal tap on the marble counter.) At the end of the process I got a cone of chocolate chip cookie dough and a hand made coke. Mmmm. Delish.
The photos above are of Shackldford Falls, Me with a newly washed blender and Ms. Sandra and her orange sherbet exravaganza and of me looking disgusted at something that refused to come clean while Sandra and Don chat in the background. (More on Sandra and Don in the post to follow)
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