A day in the park . . .

 When being deluged daily with over a foot of rain in the last couple weeks, and only rare glimpses of sunshine, it's time to head for the gates of hell.  Yes, Hell's Gate National Park.  This is the kids' school vacation so I was glad to get a day to take them with a few friends to our nearest national park where we rented bikes for an unusual way to view animals.

And we're off.  

Soon this was my view.  At this moment I realized the importance of choosing a park without predators when biking with five teenage varsity athletes.  Because predators pick of the stragglers.  

When we ran out of road we climbed.

And picnicked.

And enjoyed the view.

As well as the animals:  zebra, impala, gazelle, warthogs, buffalo, and a couple giraffe.  None of which I captured very well on a phone while riding a bike and huffing to keep up.  Even I can't really see the zebra that were originally in this picture.  

Mid-day we switched from the park to a nearby "heated" pool where we got a good deal to swim for the afternoon.  And miraculously, we all got sunburned through the overcast clouds, and the rain held off until the very end of our swim.

 And perhaps the greatest adventure of all was in trying to get back home as the torrents of rain beat down once again.  I was too busy driving in low-4WD to snap mud photos until we were almost up to the town.  

Yes, that's the view out my window, of the ROAD.