Sunday was a big travel day! We packed up the cooler with sandwiches, snacks and drinks in anticipation of the long drive ahead to Chickaloon. There were a lot of doubts that we would be able to fit 2 coolers and all of our luggage into the Toyota Sienna rental car - but Kevin, Cole & Dan were expert packers and got it all in.

The drive to Chickaloon was extremely beautiful. The road was bordered by mountains and foothills for the entire drive! We took one side trip to see a beautiful campsite that Cole & Celia had stayed at once on a small lake and used the picnic table to grab a quick lunch. Then it was back on the road to The Homestead Guest Cabins. Our two bedroom cabin was great! It was hand built by Dan Lee the owner who also had a round mill sawmill just like Dad.

Keely, Kevin, Cole & Celia threw on their hiking boots right away to get in a quick hike before dinner since they'd been cooped up in the car all day. They hiked the Fossil Loop trail to a shale bed high above the cabins. The views were beautiful of the mountains, lakes and the Matanuska glacier. After the hike the day before, everyone's legs weren't quite as steady and, luckily, the way down was much easier.

Dinner was delicious with huge marinated shrimp on the grill and the last of Stoneman's sweet corn. Sandy Lee the owner stopped by and we offered her a shrimp, even she said they were delicious!

Finally, we all settled down over a fire in the fire pit outside the cabin. Dan is still not getting quite used to the bright evenings here - he stoked the fire with tons of wood at 10:30 thinking it was only about 8 o'clock! Luckily, Cole is a night owl and hung out by the fire until it was safe to go to bed, but the rest of us were beat and wanted to make sure we were fully rested for the big day of rafting in the morning!