Pedernales Falls

Today was just pure bliss! I'm going to start at the very beginning - last night.

Reagan and I were invited to spend the night at the house of some wonderful, long-time friends: Kaylinn and Madison. I arrived just in time to snag the last piece of pizza. We set up their tent in the backyard with blankets and pillows and sleeping bags and whatever other padding we had handy, then went up to her room to catch up. Afterwards we watched Ice Princess (stop laughing) on Disney channel with her grandmother. Then we headed out to the tent under a vast canopy of stars, yawning and rubbing our tired eyes. It was cold, and the breeze nipped at my arms; I was more than happy to climb into my blanket nest and catch some Z's... but not before staying up another hour laughing.

This morning I woke up at eight to birds singing and soft, white morning light penetrating the tent walls. I just laid there and enjoyed it. Mrs. "S" brought cinnamon tea out into the tent, and I sat up against my pillows, hair tossed into a bedraggled ponytail, and snapped some pictures of everyone wrapped in blankets and beautiful light, sipping away. I think that was my favorite part of the whole day, because it was so peaceful and quiet. We would have stayed there for hours more, I think, if we hadn't known that there was warm cinnamon rolls inside.

Over breakfast, it was decided that we would go to Pedernales Falls State Park. We drove to the park crammed into the suburban like sardines. Once we arrived, water bottles were handed out, jackets were shuffled around, and shoelaces were tied before we began hiking down to the water.

Pedernales is gorgeous. Gorgeous. A wide, swift river rushes down through a vast expanse of enormous blue boulders - larger than life and smooth from years of being polished by the water - sitting on sand. We climbed and climbed and climbed, bounding up rocks and crawling through crevices. There's one section of rock that forms a straight wall - tricky to navigate but extremely rewarding once you're at the top, looking down at how far you've come. I like the challenge of finding little nooks and inlets to support my feet and grab onto to hoist myself higher than before. It's the best kind of instant gratification.

Out in the main part of the park are the biggest boulders - massive stretches of rock with river charging between. There are little pools of water hidden all around, clear and bright and deep, and there are places that jut out into the water right where it separates into two different paths; you can lay on your stomach and let the water spray you in the face and put your hands in and feel the frightening power of all of that cold, cold water. It's thrilling!

Once we'd climbed to our hearts content (and gotten stuck in a few places as well) we headed back up to the car, piled in, and drove further down to the area of park where wading and swimming is allowed.

We splashed our way straight into the middle of the icy water, shrieking and gasping, and spent an hour trying to get to the other side of the river, which was less rocky.

It never happened. The current was just too strong.

We did, however, manage to get completely soaked. It was slow going, pushing against the weight of the water, trying to maintain balance while searching blindly for a sturdy place to set our feet, then plodding forward and repeating. Sometimes we were wrong about how good our footing was and ended up slipping on the stones beneath or getting our feet stuck between them. Every now and then a really large rock would be within our reach and we would take a rest before plunging back in. We fought our way a good half mile up the river before calling it quits and following the edge of the bank back to our starting place, shivering and laughing and trying to rub off the mascara that was streaked across our faces. We dried off as best we could, grabbed our shoes, and headed home.

It was great.

And I'm zonked.

As in, completely worn out. Between the late night, the sun, and my very sore legs, I can barely see straight.

Goodnight.