Our Black Friday Tradition

I think that I've mentioned a few times on this blog that I hate lines. And crowds.
I also hate shopping (gift giving is not my love language).

I do enjoy getting outdoors, away from randos yet still with my family.

Last year we went to Red River Gorge. I have yet to post about it BUT it was AMAZING.
The drive was a bit long (from where we live) and we haven't been back since (because of the drive) but when debating where to go this year we held it in serious consideration.

We ended up going to Hocking Hills.
Which, ironically, is about the same distance from our home as The Gorge. Go figure.

Link is horrible at posing for pictures 😡

We went on four short hikes - all of the hikes are fairly short, you do have the option of extending them by connecting different scenic views or walking along the road. Since we have small kids, and with the eldest being bed ridden with a cold all week (seriously, him being sick is getting old #GetOverItAlready #NoSympathyFromMe) we decided to not try to go longer than a mile at a time.

We visited the Rock House, Cedar Falls, Old Man's Cave, and Ash Cave. In that order.

JC said he liked Hocking Hills more than he liked The Gorge. Hocking Hills has more water fall views, which he likes whereas The Gorge has more panoramic valley views.

I thought Hocking Hills was beautiful, I liked that the hikes were easy for small kids, I would love to go running there if we lived closer (it would be the perfect place to do long runs). But it was very built up - meaning that it had a lot of paved trails, railings, built in stairs. It was an area in nature that sees a high volume of visitors and so it has been built up to with stand the corrosion that comes with that level of foot traffic. We were also never alone; every place we visited had several other people there as well. So for those reasons I enjoyed The Gorge more.

After we went hiking we went to this place called JimBo's Burgers and Beer. It was ok. 
However, for a $9 burger I want more than ok.
I did really like our waitress.

Hulk had a great time exploring the caves. Despite being sick he showed enthusiasm and energy, which I appreciated. The first hike we was very grumpy and JC actually had to carry him for a bit. But by the fourth hike he was running ahead and jumping off of rocks. He just needed to warm up to the idea that this was how we were going to spend our day ;)

We had a great time and would really recommend going. It is beautiful and the cave and rock formations are *insert synonym for beautiful* and, as I mentioned, JC really enjoyed the water falls. They weren't every big (maybe they're bigger in the spring?) but they were impressive. If we lived closer I could see us going regularly (especially for long runs 😉).