Greer!
The kids and I spent a few days last week at X Diamond Ranch, outside of Greer. It was just beautiful and we had a wonderful time. Some friends graciously lent us their "cabin" (ha! actually a huge gorgeous house) and we had a wonderful trip.
The drive took about 5 hours and we went across the Apache Reservation. We went through the Salt River Canyon, which had incredible views. Rand and Ella were impressed and kept saying, "Wow! Whoa! Look!" the whole way down and all the way back up. We found the ranch and I promptly ran over a rock and got our poor Scion good and stuck. In all fairness, I couldn't see the rock at all from my low vantage point....I understand why everyone drives a truck around here. Geico came to the rescue and we finished off the night with exploring the house, hot cocoa, popcorn, and a little TV (a huge novelty....I had to explain what commercials were. At one point Rand came running down the stairs: "Mom! Did you know there's a new kind of mouthwash?!?!").
On Monday, we took a walk around the ranch, accompanied by a friendly ranch dog. The ranch has its very own indian ruins, from approximately 800 A.D. I was trying to put into context just how old they were and Rand did ask if that was older than Grandpa (sorry, Dad). There were 3 people working on digging out little pieces of pottery and they invited us in and gave us a little tour around. It was very interesting to hear about all of the different legends and stories behind the ruins. After that, we walked down to the river and played in the water until lunchtime. The kids had so much fun wading and throwing rocks.
After lunch, Rand and Ella BOTH slept 3 hours. I don't even remember the last time they both napped, but it was wonderful. After naptime, we went back to the creek until dark. The ranch is a working cattle ranch and while the kids were playing the cows moved down to where we are, so we pretended to sneak and hopscotch our way through the mud to avoid the cows. They did stare at us but that was it. A fancy dinner of macaroni and cheese followed by a makeshift game of mousetrap (a lot of pieces were missing, so we used grapes instead of balls), a couple chapters of Chronicles of Narnia, and then off to bed.
On Tuesday, we had grand plans to go fishing at Sunrise Lake, on the Apache Reservation. I figured out the directions, dug up fishing poles, and we headed off.....only to arrive and find the General Store (where we had to buy permits and bait!) was closed. I didn't have a Plan B so we drove back to the ranch to find out about fishing at the ranch's river. We were told that another party was fishing right then, but we could come back at 4pm and take a turn. Rand and Ella watched the other people fish for a while, and had fun digging up worms and sowbugs next to the creek. We came back to the house and played with Tinkertoys and Lincoln Logs, two items that'll go on their birthday lists.
When 4pm finally arrived, we drove back to the ranch's headquarters and Wink, the very nice owner of the ranch, gave Rand a black fly and Ella a purple one. She told us where a little pond was and we walked back to check it out. We didn't have any luck with fish, but there were crawdads galore and Rand and Ella had SO MUCH FUN catching crawdads with the flies. They would get the crawdads to grab the fly, and then see how high they could pull them out of the water. They laughed and laughed when the crawdads splashed down again. We were there almost 3 hours before they got hungry enough to want to head back to the cabin.
The drive took about 5 hours and we went across the Apache Reservation. We went through the Salt River Canyon, which had incredible views. Rand and Ella were impressed and kept saying, "Wow! Whoa! Look!" the whole way down and all the way back up. We found the ranch and I promptly ran over a rock and got our poor Scion good and stuck. In all fairness, I couldn't see the rock at all from my low vantage point....I understand why everyone drives a truck around here. Geico came to the rescue and we finished off the night with exploring the house, hot cocoa, popcorn, and a little TV (a huge novelty....I had to explain what commercials were. At one point Rand came running down the stairs: "Mom! Did you know there's a new kind of mouthwash?!?!").
On Monday, we took a walk around the ranch, accompanied by a friendly ranch dog. The ranch has its very own indian ruins, from approximately 800 A.D. I was trying to put into context just how old they were and Rand did ask if that was older than Grandpa (sorry, Dad). There were 3 people working on digging out little pieces of pottery and they invited us in and gave us a little tour around. It was very interesting to hear about all of the different legends and stories behind the ruins. After that, we walked down to the river and played in the water until lunchtime. The kids had so much fun wading and throwing rocks.
After lunch, Rand and Ella BOTH slept 3 hours. I don't even remember the last time they both napped, but it was wonderful. After naptime, we went back to the creek until dark. The ranch is a working cattle ranch and while the kids were playing the cows moved down to where we are, so we pretended to sneak and hopscotch our way through the mud to avoid the cows. They did stare at us but that was it. A fancy dinner of macaroni and cheese followed by a makeshift game of mousetrap (a lot of pieces were missing, so we used grapes instead of balls), a couple chapters of Chronicles of Narnia, and then off to bed.
On Tuesday, we had grand plans to go fishing at Sunrise Lake, on the Apache Reservation. I figured out the directions, dug up fishing poles, and we headed off.....only to arrive and find the General Store (where we had to buy permits and bait!) was closed. I didn't have a Plan B so we drove back to the ranch to find out about fishing at the ranch's river. We were told that another party was fishing right then, but we could come back at 4pm and take a turn. Rand and Ella watched the other people fish for a while, and had fun digging up worms and sowbugs next to the creek. We came back to the house and played with Tinkertoys and Lincoln Logs, two items that'll go on their birthday lists.
When 4pm finally arrived, we drove back to the ranch's headquarters and Wink, the very nice owner of the ranch, gave Rand a black fly and Ella a purple one. She told us where a little pond was and we walked back to check it out. We didn't have any luck with fish, but there were crawdads galore and Rand and Ella had SO MUCH FUN catching crawdads with the flies. They would get the crawdads to grab the fly, and then see how high they could pull them out of the water. They laughed and laughed when the crawdads splashed down again. We were there almost 3 hours before they got hungry enough to want to head back to the cabin.
We had to leave the next day, and both Rand and Ella were very sad to leave. Rand wanted to know when we could move up there and he was very interested in the idea of coming up and working there for a summer when he got bigger. We made a quick trip back to the creek, and back to the crawdad pond, and then headed home. The kids did so well in the car. It was a 5 hour drive and we talked and sang songs and stopped for Blizzards at DQ and had a really good time.
posted by Elizabeth @ 3:50 PM
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