Vacation stories PT1: No, seriously, there was a dead person.

"Nothing to see here, just a box under a tree." -Tree

I'm back from vacation! The exclamation point at the end of the previous exclamation is not meant to proclaim excitement that I am back. It is nice to be back in town and back at my desk, but that's not why I'm exclaiming. I am exclaiming because I'm still so excited that we were actually able to go on a vacation! See? I can't stop.

Sorry!

I published a few stories earlier today, but had jumbled 3 very good stories together, so I'll be breaking them up in greater detail over the next few posts. Be happy, it means more for you to read!

We had a great time in the mountains of Virginia, even finding time to relax a little while we were

Pictured: A small tuft of algae

there. We hiked 1.8 miles into the woods on a rocky ridge trail. Along the way in we found an earth cache, which is similar to a geocache, but you can only contribute natural objects from the area surrounding the cache. We added a small tuft of algae and continued on our way.

When we reached our destination we stopped for lunch and to re-hydrate, as well as take some victory pictures, and also found a dead person!

No, seriously, there was a dead person. 

Apparently her last wish(?) was to be left at the peak of this mountain. There was a sweet candle there with her picture on it, and a brown box that I assumed was a geocache. I like the idea of geocaching, so I took a peek inside.

It wasn't a geocache. It was her ashes, which still remained in the plastic bag they were delivered in. 

I can only assume that her family chose this because they couldn't let go completely, and instead of spreading her ashes, opted to leave her as "together"(?) as they could(?) and simply left the box there so they could visit her occasionally? I'm using so many question marks because I can't find logic there. Then again, logic doesn't generally shine in tragedy, does it? "Oh, I'm sorry your loved one has died, let's analyze the situation!" just doesn't throw a good vibe...  

...But we were proud to accomplish what was easily the most physically demanding thing we, or our 9 and 12 year old kids had ever done, and we were dang proud. We hiked the 1.8 miles (a total of 3.6 miles of rocky terrain in case you are counting) back down the mountain to our car where my son struck a proud Rocky pose and my daughter smiled a tired but still obviously proud smile.

We all slept well that night.