Today was a grand hike – we hiked the Oak Hill area, a series of trails near Peninsula, Ohio. It is only about eight miles from school, but has three ponds, a very cool tree alley, multiple bridges, dense forests, and a pretty deep gorge. Throw in the snow and a sunny day, and we had a very beautiful hike.

The trip started out well – because of J-term’s requiring more buses than we can get a hold of, we got a rented bus, with high-backed seats and pretty regal comfort. It was almost too bad that we were only on the bus for about fifteen minutes each way.

We hiked somewhere between four and five miles, and it took almost two hours. We got back to school about thirty minutes early, so if I ever do this class again, I’m adding in a two-mile extension that we did not hike. I’d much rather be a few minutes late than thirty minutes early.

My boss Jim could not go on this hike because of a sore tendon that resulted from a treatment shot. Happily, my co-worker Vicki was still able to go, so I was not alone with twenty-six students. The hike itself went well, and except for the slowdown from an almost-continuous snowball lobbing being done by some of the males of the group, all went smoothly.

In Mer’s Italy class, she taught more vocabulary, and then looked at scientists, authors, and musicians. She said that the students are on the quiet side, but that the class seems to be going well in general.