As you may recall from this post (and this one, and this one, and this one...), my most striven for and elusive task this summer has been finding a wild place in which to swim. However, though surrounded by creeks and three rivers of note, the closest I had been able to get was creek-walking and pool swimming.
Yesterday, that finally changed.
A couple weeks back, Briggs ‘ The Mad Researcher’ Alden found an internet guide to swimming holes…just a place where people can note their own favorite spots. He found a few in our general area, and one in particular, Jackson
Falls, not far from us at all. We did not have time to go before this past weekend, but in all honesty, the stars were rather perfectly aligned for the trip to be when it was; the weather was warm but not sweltering, which was good, as we inadvertently took the long way around, most of which was uphill and through some brush; Anna’s family was visiting her in-laws, but she was home and looking to get out of the house, so I had female moral support and a swimming companion; we had even just been grocery shopping and recently acquired a cooler, so I was able to pack us a picnic lunch.
We got lost a couple times, as we are still breaking in the sat nav, and did have to pull out the computer and check directions once or twice, but eventually we pulled up to a beautiful, woodsy path along a creek. We had an invigorating hike, and by the time we found the spot,
we were more than ready to cool off in the chilly water. Anna and I had definitely been concerned that we would arrive to a party spot swarming with macho teen guys and high-school girls in skimpy suits that would make us feel fat and old, but the place was relatively deserted when we arrived, and we spent a while splashing in the water and jumping off the falls (with many a girly scream from me and corresponding derision from Anna) and picking up a few scrapes and bruises and having our feet nibbled on by small fish…a phenomenon which I had heard was not uncommon, but had never experienced, myself.
Eventually, a group of adolescents did descend like locusts on the swimming hole, at which point we decided that it was probably a good time to head back. As the return hike was more downhill, it was much more pleasant…and when we got to the car, we had cucumber sandwiches, juice and marshmallow-rice squares waiting for us! All in all, a perfect afternoon.
The rest of the evening was pretty nice as well…I finished up some homework and Anna came over for dinner (massive salad with grilled salmon) and we made two failed attempts at watching a fun romantic comedy — “Conversations With Other Women” = over the top artsy, lots of ‘we’re so clever’ banter and full movie split-screen, and “She’s the One” = just…bad, and full of unlikable characters. …but we still enjoyed hanging out and eating salad. ^_^
Anyway, the place we swam is, apparently, just one of three good swimming spots on that creek…the biggest having a 30′ waterfall and a bigger pool…we are definitely going back to explore further. This time with hiking shoes, instead of flip-flops.
A happy Rei:

the bank their money. It wasn’t even a case of not HAVING money to give the bank — Briggs had just gotten paid and everything…he just hadn’t gotten around to bringing the money TO the bank.
deal with stuff like not having a car and being on the verge of a nervous breakdown, when I returned they would suddenly hike tuition by 200% for no apparent reason and I would have to drop out of school just a couple quarters before graduation and spend the rest of my life working in a Burger Hut.
id get the house at least nominally clean. It is, of course, quickly disintegrating back towards dirty, but still, better than it was.
keyboard. Other than that, it is just taking a little while to get used to the format, just like it took a little to get used to drawing on my Wacom…but I’m getting there. *sigh*
tabletop adventurers was curly fries with malt vinegar to sprinkle upon them. I haven’t had said treat in YEARS and my GOSH it’s gotta be one of the yummiest things EVER, and I was pretty much unable to resist at all. So yeah. That, and a couple other Fourth of July weekend indiscretions, pretty much guarantee that any forward progress I made towards not totally hating my body was undone. And this whole week is supposed to be miserable and gross like it is now, so getting any real outside exercise is…unlikely. (Of course, it helped greatly when a friend of mine told me the other day, in response to my frustration with my less-than-ideal body, ‘oh honey…we’re just getting to that age where our metabolisms are starting to slow down, and we just have to accept it!’ Well…I refuse.)
are having them, you are most often wet, cold, hungry and/or miserable, and they don’t seem at all as glorious when you are in the middle of them as when you are hearing about them beside a warm fire.

point where it was only about ankle deep. Seriously, overall, it was pretty awesome, and the weather was PERFECT.
in an emotional state that I must admit is best described as ‘fragile’. Yeah…I cried a couple times. It was pathetic.
