Labor Day Hike

Labor Day morning, the kids and I hiked up to a popular lookout. We had planned to hike up around lunchtime and have a picnic, but the noxious odors of the spray-on insulation drove us out of the house earlier in the morning.

My hiking companions were, from left to right:

• An avid naturalist who insisted on pointing out every single fungus we saw. Twice (coming and going).
• An almost-ten-year-old drama queen who forgot to bring her sweatshirt and was therefore chilly.
• A teenager who figured that since Michael wasn't there, the position of male parent was his to fill, thus setting off the drama queen.
• A three-year-old who attempted to stomp on every fungus he saw, thus setting off the naturalist (who nevertheless continued to loudly call attention to every fungus).
  

Our time on the ledge admiring the view and petting all the dogs (quite a few valley residents and visitors also decided to do that hike on Monday), calmed everyone down, and the hike back to the car was quite pleasant. LW did the entire 2.2 miles by himself.

Here are two examples of the fungi we saw:




As you can see, we are still in the beginning of foliage season.