Monday, September 26, 2016

Thrill of the Ride

With a whole day free before they have to leave, Caleb, Haley and I decided to head up to a favorite spot in the Beskydy Mountains this afternoon: Pustevny


This is a place full of memories for our family. A half hour from where we live, it's a mountain peak where we've hiked, walked, skied, ridden bikes, eaten meals, and had a lot of fun over the years.

For Haley today, it was her first time here, plus her first time up the ski lift! It's a leisurely fifteen minute ride in the peacefulness of the forest. I'm glad she got to experience it!


Of all things today, we got there just a few minutes before the last lift of the day ... at 1:30! Normally it's open until 5. But because of repairs, they were closing down early.

We decided to go up anyway.


The view is stunning from the top, and it was so delightful to share it with these two!


Colorfully painted turn-of-the-century buildings are up there and make for spectacular pictures.


Our favorite restaurant, and the most beautiful building of all up there, burned down several years ago. Those of us in the region truly grieved the loss of it when we woke to news of the tragedy the next morning.

After time, thought and fundraising effort, construction has begun on a new building that they say will look like the old one. Hopefully it really will because we all miss it! The construction will be complete in three years, they say.

Since that restaurant obviously wasn't an option, we stopped at another one for lunch.


Tastes of home for Caleb, including Sauerkraut soup (kyselice) and Kofola, hit the spot.


After a leisurely lunch in the warm fall sunshine, we hiked up to a lookout so Haley could see the view of these beautiful mountains.


At this point in our the trip, we'd already experienced plenty of goodness for our souls and bodies.

But, because we now had to get down from Pustevny without the chairlift, the trip took an eventful turn.


We rented scooters and biked down the six kilometer road to the bottom!


In the picture above the scooters look very similar to mountain bikes. They just don't have seats. But oh are they fun to be on!


The thrill of the ride, not to mention the beauty, peacefulness, joy and delight of that ride down will stay with me for a long time.


Sharing it with Caleb and Haley on a beautiful fall afternoon in our mountains was a perfect way to spend time together!

"Loved being with you Caleb and Haley!!"

1 comment:

  1. Soon fun! What a memorable day. And I'm thrilled to hear that they are rebuilding the restaurant like the old one. I can hardly wait to go back there again with you when the new one is built. And I love the ride down the hill. You are all such adventurers!!! Love it..and love you!

    ReplyDelete