Relaxing ... kind of

This weekend we had some leisure time. Friday night we went to the drive-in movies near our house with Rachel, Ben, Katie, and Jim. We saw the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie. It was entertaining, but not as good as the other three - I really missed some of the cast from the previous movies, although I don't think Chris was displeased with the addition of Penelope Cruze (or whatever her name is).

Saturday we went on a hike to Greyrock Mountain with Nick, Dave, Jim, Pete, Sierra (Dave's dog) and Winston (Pete's dog). This is an excellent hike most times of the year, especially since it's only about 30 minutes from home. The views from the top of the mountain are well worth sitting and enjoying for as long as possible - you can see for miles to east (flat), north (to the bumpy mountains of Wyoming's Vedawoo area), and west (from foothills to the continental divide). We hiked up the Meadows Trail in hopes of finding some wild flowers. We saw several lanceleaf chiming bells near the streams (petite blue/purple bell-like flowers) and little white and yellow daisies on the way up. In the meadowy area below the summit there were a few Pasqueflowers, which I just learned are in the buttercup family, and is the state flower of South Dakota. They are a pink flower with a fuzzy stem. The higher the trail went, the better the views of the surrounding foothills. While not as impressive as the snow-capped peaks, there is something serene yet wild about seeing mile upon mile of rolling wooded slopes.

There is a fair amount of elevation gain in the first few miles of the Meadows Trail , which makes for super-slow preggo hiking.

At the end of the Meadows Trail (about 3.5 miles), you rejoin the Summit Trail, and from there it's a rocky, steep .75 miles to the top. I was hiking extraordinarily slow and opted for a nap nestled among some boulders and spruce. It was super nice to just lay around in the grass for more than 1-1/2 hours while the men and dogs went to the top. It was a windy day (of course) but I found a perfectly shielded spot in the sun.

The meadows and Greyrock Mountain to the right.

Dave, Pete, and their dogs on the summit. At first we weren't sure if Sierra and Winston would get along, but then Winston made it his mission to hump Sierra - which didn't help matters because Sierra has high standards.

The hike back to the cars (along the Summit Trail) was of course way easier, being all downhill. The only problem for me was that my ankles were swollen and didn't fit very well into my boots. They were extremely sore last night as a result, and I have never been so tired from a 6.5 mile hike! Overall though it was so so nice to be outside and getting some exercise. The company was great, and the guys pretended to not be waiting for me when they had to stop every mile or so. Chris, Dave, Nick and I ended the hike in perfect fashion, with a trip to one of my new favorite restaurants, Lupita's. (We even discussed naming the baby Lupita since she has spent a fair portion of the last 7 months swimming in their green chile sauce.)

PS. I started writing this at 4:30 AM on Monday because I couldn't sleep! Then I got it in my head to make strawberry-rhubarb crisp (I've actually been wanting to do this for days because our rhubarb is going bananas after last week's rain). So ... here I sit, at 4:50, eating the crisp (with vanilla ice cream, of course), and watching the horizon turn orange (man, the sun comes up early in the summer!). Maybe I will sleep now ...