Thanksgiving Geocaching

The weather in Kentucky over Thanksgiving weekend was perfect for a little geocaching and hiking.  Chablis, Nicki and I headed out to Land Between the Lakes in search of a few caches.

The first stop was for a quick park and grab cache at Barkley Dam.  Last spring when we were here, this whole area was flooded.

Chablis dodged off trail to grab a cache in a stump....

My favorite cache of the day was about a 3 mile round trip hike.  Right off the bat we started on a steep decline, so Chablis and Nicki did a little "surfing!"

I like narrow trails like these that wind through the woods.  Every once in awhile we would catch a glimpse of Lake Barkley....

The GPS put us right at the edge of an embankment.

 The cache could have been either down below towards the beach, or up top, where we were.  Chablis and Nicki decided to search the upper level and I climbed down to the beach....

It turns out that Nicki found the cache up top after all, near this cross...

The view was really nice so we sat for a few minutes to enjoy it before heading back to the car....

By this time we had worked up an appetite, so we headed over to Patty's 1880 Settlement for lunch and some Christmas shopping.  We ate at Mr. Bill's Restaurant, which was decorated for Christmas and I love these colors....

With lunch we got one of their specialties, which is a loaf of bread baked in a flower pot, and served with whipped and/or strawberry butter.  It's wonderful!

Afterwards we walked around the shops, looking for gifts.  They had a snow flake machine churning out snow, which looked so pretty dancing in the wind....

They were setting up their center gazebo with decorations and lights in anticipation of Santa's arrival.  Chablis sat down to rest for a second.....

Walking back to the car, we noticed this building.  We had to laugh at a building that housed a cafe, a golf cart rental and a bait shop.  I'm glad we didn't have lunch there!

All in all, it was a really nice way to spend a mild November day.