Oh, go take a hike

Peter, Grace and I took a hike today on the Piedmont Nature Trails at the NC Botanical Garden. It's a nice little nature trail -- there's a short loop, with a self-guided nature walk, and a longer loop. If you hike the two together, which we did, it's a smidge over a mile.

The kids basically had a good time, except for the spur we took that overlooks a water treatment plant. They weren't fond of the smell!

On the second half of the hike, Grace turned into a tour-guide extrordinairre. She took the lead, and pointed out every single root and rock, lest Peter or I trip over them. She also turned around periodically and admonished us to stay on the trail (unless we needed to use the bathroom), and that anything we picked up along the way would have to stay in the Botanical Gardens.

After our hike, we went into the gardens briefly to use the restroom (Peter and I were both too scared of Grace to go off the trail!), then meandered through the herb garden. It's the Sculpture At the Garden show right now (local sculptors exhibit in the Garden), which I wanted to see, but Peter and Grace were "STARVING", so we came home for snacks. Maybe next weekend......