Epic Man-Adventure

Last Saturday our church had a Mother-Daughter banquet for all the ladies who were either a mother or a daughter. Which was..... pretty much all of the ladies in the church. Anyways, Joy went with her good friend Maget, so I got to take Isaiah for the afternoon. Well, after pondering some things to do for the day and after talking with Maget's hubs, Adam, we decided to go on a hike to some waterfall that we had never been to before. I chronicled the adventure with my camera, and so I would like to take you on a journey in this blog of what I like to call our "man-adventure".

*Disclaimer: I refer to it as a man-adventure, because after starting and reading the book Wild At Heart, apparently these types of things are good for the masculine soul.*

Alright, so the journey begins in the manliest of vehicles, our little yellow Nissan March. Ok, maybe not so manly. But at any rate, we didn't let that discourage us. We started driving north, and after a little while Isaiah was having some man-food withdrawals, so I jumped in the back to satisfy his cravings with some solid food. He was glad to see me.

Oh! I almost forgot to mention. We had to bring our trusty scout dog to make sure the trail was safe and to fend off any wildlife that wanted to mess with this manly trio.

So Adam took the wheel for the rest of the drive.........

while I pumped Isaiah up with some pep talk of how real men behave in the wild.

We arrived to the bottom of the trail after about an hour of driving, following some directions I printed out on a piece of paper. Contrary to popular belief, men are actually pretty good at following directions. We only had to turn around what? like once? or maybe twice? I'm not sure.... the point is, we didn't actually have to ASK anyone for directions. Being on a Japanese island didn't really have anything to do with it either....

Well, this "trail" that I mention... it was actually the stream coming from the waterfall! So you basically have to hike up this stream/river to get to the waterfall. Pretty epic. Pretty manly. Definitely not an adventure for the faint of heart. So in usual Izzy-style, she scouted the river for us to make sure that there were no piranhas or crocodiles in the water.

I mean, even if there were, Adam would've been sure to wrastle them critters down. Thankfully he didn't have to. I think all the creatures got scared at the sheer sight of such manliness.

The journey continues...

With some breaks to play.... man-breaks of course!

Some more epic scenery and masculine posing in the middle of the river.

Then, of course, our manhood came to the test. A rock wall stood between us and the rest of the trail. So of course we had to conquer this test of strength, agility, and endurance, all the while being gentle enough to protect Isaiah. Tough test, but we made it (the rope helped).

After some more hiking and rugged river scenery...

We arrived!

Triumphant and conquerors. True men. Real men. Of genius. River genius.

Adam decided to display his true man colors and hike to the top of the waterfall, at which point he debated with himself whether he should do a graceful swan dive off the top of the falls, but after realizing that such a dive would put his masculinity into question, decided against it.

Needless to say, his man-image was saved.

Well, we were pretty sweaty after our hike up, so Adam decided to take a real man's shower in the wild.

After nearly drowning three times before reaching the bottom of the falls, he was victorious and showered epicly. Of course no man-adventure is complete without some good eats, so in true fashion we sat Isaiah down (who was having a complete blast learning what real men do),

and proceeded to feast on our snacks. However, Ritz crackers were not manly enough for Isaiah, he had to show us up and try some rocks out for the taste.


Once we had our fill of food and Isaiah had his fill of rock, we began the journey back down to the trailhead. Besides some near slips and misses, and Adam having to carry Izzy across some deep parts (she was scared of the water... you know how girls can be), we made it back safely. And I think that I can speak for all members of our trio, but after we got back we held our heads a little bit higher, put a little bit more strut in our step, and chuckled a little more heartily. You know... man-stuff.