Today, I am almost sure I must have lost my mind. What began as a simple short hike up the honeycomed eastern face of a 520 foot mountain called The Beehive, somehow along the way resulted in a pretty harrowing climb with very narrow ledges and and incredibly steep drop offs.

I have tried to give you a perspective with a few pictures of the kids climbing, but these can’t even begin to tell the story of what they had to encounter and overcome on the way to the summit.

As I made my way up and saw the look on my kids faces I knew they were afraid, but there was really nothing I could do about it b/c by the time we were in over our heads it was simply too late to turn around.

Eventually, we all made it…Thank God! And as we stood on the summit and looked out, we were able to breathe a major sigh of relief, appreciating what we had accomplished, knowing that this would be one of those family memories we would all probably never forget!

In time, I hope our climb doesn’t end up with our kids being in therapy years later, wondering why their dad would have done such a thing to them. But at several points along the way I thought to myself…what have I gotten my family into? At the top we fortunately discovered a much safer route down and we thankfully took it.

Afterwards, we went down to Sand Beach where the boys and I decided to brave the 58 degree waters for a swim. By the way, only 1 of the 3 of us had a wetsuit. But, even with it, it was still another crazy idea of mine that shouldn’t have been entertained, much less executed.  I must have lost my mind. Fortunately, by this time, Katinka and Gab had the good sense to veto the idea and choose a much safer, saner hike without us.

All in all, it was quite a day. One I will not soon forget and I am sure the rest of my family won’t either!

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