My hu*****and and I used to be avid hikers, but with the birth of the kids, especially the second one, we had not been to the trails very often. My hu*****and's leg injury last year did not help with the cause either.
However, I had been thinking about resuming the activity lately, and the long weekend provided an excellent opportunity to do so, especially given how sunny the weather was..
Since the last hiking trip we made was more than one year ago, we decided that we would start small by taking to an easy trail.
Bikes were loaded, and we set off after lunch.
The trail we picked runs along a huge reservoir. The water, especially with the pampas grass in the foreground, looked so gorgeous under the sun. For reasons I don't even know myself, I always have a soft spot for pampas grass in my heart. It brings about elegance and romance.
The trail is paved, perfect for little kids biking along. Both kids had lots of fun riding their bicycles on the trail. 
At a young age of 4, my son has a surprising appreciation for natural beauty. He would stop here and there along the way to look at the sceneray. We were amused by his precocious comments on how beautiful this or that was.
There are pampas grass throughout the trail, not just on the water side. I simply could not resist its temptation:-).
We stopped for a rest about 1 mile into the trail, where we happily ran into a friend of my daughter's. Her family had the same idea, tempted by the gorgeous weather to take a stroll along the trail. The girls and boys played together and had a great time. My daughter also tried to be a photographer, hoping to capture the beautiful things on camera.
My daughter's friend shared with her the acorns she collected along the trail, and that set off my daughter's pursuit of the same for the rest of the hiking/biking.
On our way back to the trail head, the sun had started setting. I captured the pampas grass in this different light.
My daughter collected 11 carefully-sought acorns, on last count. Even though I am sometimes amazed at how fast she has grown, from that little baby to a now quite articulate young lady, I was once again reminded that she was still a little girl by the question she posed to me for confirmation. She asked, "Mom, there are so many acorns. That means Totoro is for real, correct?"
As you may know, Totoro is the forest spirit in the classic Japanese anime, "My Neighbor Totoro". He carries around a sack of acorns everywhere. It always leaves a trail of acorns because there is a hole on the sack..
At the end, both kids exclaimed that they had a great time. And "It's exhausting!", my son added.
Both fell asleep on the drive home.
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