Acorn Pie???

Today was it was a gorgeous fall day here in NE Ohio, with temps in the low '60's. I've been wanting to visit "The Gorge" which is located between Cuyahoga Falls and Akron, with the Cuyahoga River running through it. This time of year we treasure every nice-weather day we can get because we know what's coming! Sooo...

I took my almost four year old granddaughter (the oldest of the grands) on her first hike! We walked a couple miles altogether which took a couple of hours. (It's plain I won't be running in a marathon anytime soon, or in this lifetime at all!) But this wasn't a marathon kind of day anyway.

We took our time, and deliberately stopped to listen to the sounds all around us. Squirrels were scampering in the dried leaves, which made it sound like we were being followed! Then we would stop and identify bird sounds. Acorns were falling from huge oak trees all around us. Eventually we made it to the falls, where we sat on a bench and ate our lunch.

The Cuyahoga River actually runs over a man-made dam now. Parts of the original natural falls are under the dam, and parts more down stream.

Elylah had a great time picking up dried leaves in bunches and throwing them over the railings. We spotted a lonely fisherman sitting on a rock downstream from the falls. Elylah discovered the ancient flat rocks with decades old initials of lovers carved in them. She even spotted a heart carved into an old tree.

Climbing back up the many steps to the trail above, we journeyed on to Mary Campbell's Cave. Mary Campbell was a pioneer girl from western Pennsylvania who had been captured by the Delaware Indians back in the 1700's when she was about 12 years old. She was eventually returned to her family. The cave is supposed to be the location where the Indians kept her.

We could hear the sound of water springs coming from the crevices of the rock, and that was a little scary to Elylah. She wanted to know if we would see any Indians. I didn't tell her about the arrow heads that we used to hunt for (and sometimes found) as kids in this same historic natureland. I wonder if there are any more to be found? Visitors are supposed to stay on the trail now so as not to contribute to erosion of the steep banks.

One other site I pointed out was this open area. When I was growing up, this was frozen over and was our ice skating hang out. When I looked at the large metal wood burner still there decades later, I could almost hear the sound of my frozen mittens sizzling against the side of the thing, where we gathered to keep warm. Back then after supper we would scoot down the embankment from the road above on our backsides to get a few hours of skating in, and it was very dark when we walked back home with our skates slung over our shoulders. We never thought about danger and our parents didn't worry about us either.

Finally it was time to start hiking back to the car. Some other nice hikers took our picture for us.

Elylah gathered acorns in her pockets on the way back, and we noticed how difficult it was to find them with their "hats" still attached. I explained how the squirrels were busy hiding them for their winter food. She wondered if we had collected enough to make acorn pie. umm...I don't think so!

What a fun time we had, and what a trip down memory lane for me. I delivered my granddaughter back to her house, and I returned to mine. uh...here's the Aleve?

What kinds of things are you doing to make memories this fall? Please share!