We all spent last week at the cabin up at Desoto Falls and I must admit, being back in the real world this week has been difficult. It was extremely nice to pull away from everything. The cabin is pretty awesome, too! It's like something out of a fairytale. I'll never miss another opportunity to get up there. Mason's parents bought into a time share last year and we never made it up there...silly us. The picture I have attached is the view from the cabin and the crazy cool cabin itself. I feel like it's the type of place that inspired true fairy tales. I hope we keep it for Clare to grow up in. Won't this produce some fantastic memories? Too much fun to think about.
On a funny note, Mason and I decided to find the "trail" from our cabin to the bottom of the gorge so we could go swimming. I must say that in the past, I have been a fearless companion to him. I used to be the first one to jump at a semi-dangerous opportunity; however, after a year of being pregnant and nine months of being lazy and having no opportunities...I have become afraid. After about two hours of cajoling, I finally agreed to this adventure. 20 yards into it I already regretted my decision. As you can see, the cabin sits on the lip of a big basin. This basin wall goes straight down. I quoted trail above because the "trail" had rope/electrical wire all the way down it tied to various objects so that you could prevent yourself from falling down this basin wall. I also quoted it because the word trail usually conjures some type of image of a cleared path that should be kind of navigable. This is not the definition I had after getting to the bottom. After climbing over two gigantic dead trees on a steep decline, down a make shift ladder about 20 feet high and over innumerable dangerous rocks and roots, we found ourselves at the bottom of the basin. I tripped twice and got leg cramps because I was so terrified at the ladder. We laughed our way down though, and once we got there, it was amazing! The view above was amazing, the caves under the falls were amazing (so cool...soo cool), the guys rappelling from the top and dropping into the icy cold water were amazing, but most importantly, we were down and it was amazing! I didn't get into the water on this trip because the water was cold (I know this because of everyone in the water screaming "IT'S COLD") and the sun wasn't out, also it was our last day and, as I frequently tell Mason, I don't like being wet unless I'm in a swim suit...which thank goodness I was not in at the time we navigated the "trail".
We stayed and observed for twenty or so minutes and then it was back to the top...the time we decided to take the more traveled "trail" up the other side of the basin. this is the way people usually go where they cross the falls and then go around the backside of the mountain and down...In my head, I thought, "Oh, that will be so much less scary and easier". I quote trail this time because trail meant "river rock and paths washed by rushing water when it rains". Again, this silly word trail echoed through my brain as I'm climbing up the side of a basin hanging onto rock ledges and trying not to cry because I'm scared. Mason patiently showed me how to maneuver the rocks, how to sit and slide when you don't have much grabbing room and we made it to the top on the other side of the basis in our attempt to get back to the cabin. Again, we laughed our way to the top and my confidence and sense of adventure was returning. That is until we had to do it again to get back down into the falls and back over to the other side where the cabin is. Obviously we made it since I'm writing this. In hind site it wasn't that scary of a trip. At the time, I was shaking. Of course, this might have been because I'm out of shape too!
I laughed out loud at all of the girls coming in in bikinis with high heal flip flops as they headed across the falls toward the "trail" so they could get down to the water. It's mean, but hey, they will be laughing at the ones coming down when they're headed back up too. It's a privilege since we made it back.
Anyway, that is definitely the story that I took from five days at the cabin. The rest of the time was spent relaxing and hanging out with the fam. Oh, that and my mother-in-law trying to work a Mayan hammock. I'll have to save that story for later, but the mere image of it has me laughing as I write this. It's that good.