Friday, July 23, 2010

Day Six; bouldering, eagles falls, into to Loiusville

Day Six.

Wednesday morning was another early rise from the tent for Ashley and I. We packed up and decided to see if we could catch some morning fog around Cumberland Falls. Unfortunately, there was little to be had. We did find a way to climb down to the rocks below and did a little bouldering in the morning. My lanky body allows me the luxury of be amused at watching Ashley (barely 5 foot) try to climb over large rocks. She is a trooper and would get her revenge in a few days.

After climbing back to the parking area near the falls, we opted to try and find Eagle Falls. Eagle Falls was on the other side of the river (there was a bridge) and a little over a mile hike. We did not anticipate any issues for a couple of veterans like us. After about an hour in the woods, we realized that we were way past the location of the falls according to the map. It was not a huge disappointment since we were still enjoying the hike and we stumbled upon a great stream.

I have seen many stream, brooks, and rivers in my life and it is a rare occurrence to see running water make a 90 degree turn. This was one such spot and it was gorgeous to boot. The water was even shallow enough to wade into. We spend about another 45 minutes here relaxing and trying to figure out how we might have missed Eagle Falls.

As we figured out where we might have gone wrong, we began to backtrack. This may have been the biggest potato-head move of the trip. Apparently, there was a huge sign beside a turn off on the path indicating Eagle Falls. We both had walked right past it. Ashamed and laughing, we hiked down to the falls and it was well worth the extra effort.

Eagle Falls even had a little cave area behind it that we were able to climb into and enjoy the falls from behind the water. The falls were not the largest we had seen on the trip but they were very enjoyable and marked the last of the falls we would see on our vacation.

We hiked back out and drove into the Central time zone on our way to Louisville Kentucky. This is where Ashley's efforts for the vegan options shined.

Dinner was at a place called Zen Garden. We shared some potstickers. I had sesame tofu. Ashley had soft tofu in a black bean sauce. For desert, we split a slice of chocolate peanut butter pie. The potstickers were good and both entrees were decent. I wish mine had more sauce. The pie was extremely dense, almost like eating fudge.


Two buildings down, the Zen Garden has a tea house. We stopped in for a preview and walked out with some cupcakes with green frosting! They were awesome but only a precursor to a day and a half of amazing food in Louisville.

The coolest spot we found in Louisville was Cones and Coneyz, which we drove by because it was juts down the road from the Zen locations. It is an ice cream and hot dog spot, not your usually vegan spot. However, they had vegan dogs and vegan chili! We were so pumped that we got a dog on the spot despite just eating dinner. We had an All American Dog.


After being almost to full to share a single dog, we stopped at a bakery with a few vegan options called Sweet Surrender.  We snatched up an amazing Strawberry cupcake.   It made for a wonderful bedtime snack.



4 comments:

Catherine Weber said...

Ashley, I feel your pain. I am 5'1", and my boyfriend is well over 6' -- he has to help me out a lot!

Millie said...

all that water reminds me of all the rain forests we have in Puerto Rico. They are breath taking.

Shaheen said...

I applaud Ashley,
I'm 5'2 and 3/4 (I wish) and my husband is well over 6 foot. So like you, likes to stand back and admire my lagging behind efforts.

Sounds like your getting to eat some interesting grub on your travels.

Elisabeth said...

I would probably gain 50 pounds eating all these delicious foods and cupcakes during the trip :o)