A Freezing Weekend Getaway

Thanks to MLK Jr. this is a long weekend. So Brent and I decided a while back that we would take a Weekend Getaway for camping. Little did we know at the time that, unlike Texas, Kentucky does not allow camping between November and March. When we saw that the low for last night was 3 degrees (this was not the wind chill) we realized why this rule was enstated. Despite our inability to camp, we still had a huge need for outdoors. So we went to Natural Bridge State Park and stayed in a lodge on Saturday night. It was not camping, but the hiking was great. Here are some of the pictures we took: This was the view from our room with the windows open. Gorgeous! This morning we watched the sun rise over the ridge. Just so you know, these are not mountains. It is a plateau formed into these ridges that is now called the Red River Gorge. They say that it was carved out years ago by the Red River. There are tons of rock formations... including the Natural Bridge. Continue for pictures! For entertainment last night the band Brush Fire played some good ol' country music. Yes, that is a banjo! The guy playing the banjo also did a short magic show where he made stuff disappear and told a variety of corny jokes that my dad would have loved!

After the show we went to hear an Educational Speaker tell us about Winter Birds of Kentucky. Brent and I are now into "birding" because we found it so interesting. We are hoping to go to Barnes and Noble to find a book for identifying various types later today!

Around 10 am we began our trek into the great outdoors! This is part of the trail up to the infamous Natural Bridge. This part was ok, but there were many parts that we very slippery. Like I said, it was REALLY cold! Even with multiple layers, it still took us a while to thaw out once we were finished! This was our first good view of the Natural Bridge as we made our way up the trail.This thing is HUGE! Yes, the little pink dot to the left is me! This is what it looks like from underneath the bridge. And yes, this is only one side of it. We could not get the whole thing in the picture from this angle.Brent was amazed at how humongous it was too!This is part of the trail that goes from underneath the bridge to the top that we walked across. It really felt like the sides of the rock were closing in on me! (Ok, maybe not... but it was fun to pretend that I was in a scary movie anyway...) A momentary pause in the freezing cold on the way to the top of the bridge.The view from the top of the bridge was gorgeous. Look at the cliff on the left side of the picture...Here's the view of Natural Bridge from there! There was ice like this hanging all over the place. It's just amazing to me how the water freezes in thin air like that. I also think that it's much prettier than the icicle lights at Christmas. There's just something to authenticity I guess!Brent was astonished that this one icicle was as huge as it was and that it was so close that he could touch it. So he decided to pull it down... And here's what happened to the poor little icicle...

Icicle no more!

After we finished our hike, we took the "Scenic Byway" to enjoy the rest of the Red River Gorge's beauty. Along the way in the city of Nada (yes, that is "nothing" in Spanish...) there is a one-lane tunnel. This sign was completely frozen on the side of the road just before going inside of it. The tunnel itself was awesome, but unfornately too dark to take pictures.

And that was our Freezing Weekend Getaway! We really enjoyed time away with each other, but even more, getting to enjoy God's great creation. We were awestruck by everything from the specific characteristics of types of birds to the vast size of the bridge made from rocks to the thick icicles.

And on top of all of that He still loves me! Wow! How does He do it?