For the past couple of years we have had a family tradition. Every year we take a trip up to Michigan. Usually we go to my Dad's high school reunion. It’s a beautiful campus and it’s in the middle of nowhere. They have so many cool things to see and the whole campus is engulfed in nature. You can walk around on the edge of the lake, you can run the three mile course they have which is surrounded my nature, You can go to the one and ONLY grocery store that they have and get the bare necessities of what you need, and most of all you get to enjoy the sixty degree weather that they have vs our usual ninety degree weather that we have back home. For my dad and I it’s a nice way to spend a week away from home and we enjoy it to the best of our abilities. It also allows me to meet the people that my dad grew up with and learn more stories about him. My Dad was a pretty bad kid and got away with a lot of things. Stuff now that you would never get away with in this day and age.

This year though we had to make a decision. I work a part time job and as it turns out, the week that we usually take to go to the reunion was almost impossible to get off. Everyone was going somewhere or spending time celebrating Father’s Day. My job had asked me if it was possible to move that week up or down. I had told them that it wasn’t my decision and that it was my Dad's since this was his trip. With much understanding they gave me time to ask and with no difficulty we moved the trip up a week. So we made plans, I told my job and they were happy that I could make the change. Were pretty laid back so it was an easy change to make. We then decided to go Helen Georgia to do some hiking and for me to see this little town since I had not been before.  It was quite the little town. I called it the town that magically appeared in the mountains. It pretty much was just that. Very small, you can walk all around town with a couple thousand steps and everything was laid out to be that way. It was around the seventies when we arrived and the town was bustling with people. It originally was inspired by the Germans so the architecture was magnificent and they had beer at every turn. The food was very well done and from what I understand they did most things by hand. They had Fudge shops, coffee shops, and plenty of beer stops. For me it was quite the event since it was pretty much was I imagined every town in the world would look like as a child. I had always hoped that, the world would be as beautiful as it was there and I wished it more than anything when I was younger. Now that I know reality though, it’s a nice refresher from the cities and towns that have no mountains or nature parks. It was like a little fantasy land. 

We spent the most of the evening walking around and just enjoying the air. We bought some alcohol and had some good food. We went to bed and the next day we decided to go for a hike. As it turned out we had also run into trouble that morning. We both drink coffee and my dad had gotten my hopes up with this little coffee shop that was in town. It was called Higher Ground and he said that the coffee was exceptional. That sounded amazing and that morning I had high hopes that we would get away from the usual water tasting coffee that most hotels provide. Sadly I was wrong. That morning it seemed that all the shops were still sleeping because we waited for an hour for the shops that had coffee to open and they seemed to have become ghosts. With much frustration, disappointment, and unhappiness we moved on and went for the hike without caffeine. Once we got to the road that went to the trail we ran into a part of the road that was just flooded enough so that the car couldn’t make it over and up the hill to the beginning of the trail. With a short talk about if we should go or not we decided to do the little walk up to the trail. Well a little walk turned into a uphill climb for an entire mile and a quarter. No real breaks just up the entire time. 

Instantly I became a devil. I regretted every step but I tried to stay optimistic, for the sake of my father and I. Sure i'm evil when I don’t have caffeine and I made it clear how unhappy I was with my little short dialogues. and unwillingness to be a decent human being. The reward was worth it though and once we were at the waterfall it was quite beautiful. You were so close you could look straight up at it and feel the water coming from the waterfall. It dropped a good ten degrees because you were so close and that was a good enough reward for me to feel like, even if I didn’t get my caffeine, that it was worth the crazy uphill part of the hike. It was nothing like the Grand Canyon (now that one kicked our asses) but it was definitely one for the books. 

Even if it was hard I still did it and I may have been an evil bitch in the beginning but, that’s ok. We both made it and we both thought it was worth the almost five mile trek. Even if you don’t have caffeine you can still do human like activities. It may be harder but it is still worth it.