Tai Chi on a dead tree

Our family had a wonderful time on Saturday at Wissahickon Creek part of Fairmount Park. We hiked for about 3 hours. It was great weather, warm but the trees created shade and a cool breeze. We started at Valley Green Restaurant and headed south down to the Walnut Lane bridge, which is a historical 157foot tall bridge that was opened in 1908. It's made out of concrete and very marvelous to look at! The creek is in a gorge with tall trees on either side. It's windy and interesting the entire way down. The area used to be industrial back in the 1800's but is now just ruins of beautiful stone walls and wagon paths. It's definitely a must-see for hikers. On our way back we crossed over the creek and took a different path. It was beautiful and easy going until we got to a huge rock that jetted out into the creek. It was very slanted and scary to climb over, but what was even worse was when we got to the top we realized we had to cross a finger suspension bridge that crossed a gap between the rock and another about 18 feet away. It was cool because we weren't expecting that kind of adventure. The nice thing about the park is that it's 450 acres and though we've been there twice and spent hours, we have seen only a small percentage of all the attractions and secrets the valley holds. The reason for the title of this blog is while we were walking along "Forbidden Drive" we saw a big old tree laying across 95% of it. Apparently it had just fallen(before we arrived at the park though) and the Park Ranger was in front of it with his bike calling in people to clear it. But the strange thing about the ordeal was the three people standing on the tree. They were in sunbeams and moving at the pace of snails with branches in their arms. I thought it was some pagan naturist thing but it also seemed like they were dancing. The best way to describe it was some sort of Tai Chi, but it could have been a joke. After we passed we saw a video camera sitting on a fence toward them. Very strange.

A very unconventional Fathers Day: Mark went fishing down at Long Port, NJ last night from 4:30, and he came home around 4am. We did have a nice time while he was home though, first at church and then at home relaxing.

Since I had the boys for a few hours last night I took them to another park down the street, we call it "wooden park" but it has another name. It's just so much fun for the kids because the play set goes on and on and on with so many different things to climb, slide, jump on and more. Mark has off today and we are looking for something fun to do today as well.

I got an early birthday present last night Guitar Hero for 360. I already beat the game in Medium and boy am I loving it!