Sharing Suck Creek

Because sharing is what I do when good flows like river currents.  I want to take pictures of it, describe it, store it, scoop it up in community cups and pass them along to anyone else who might like a sip.
From Kelle Hampton, ETST

If that's not my M.O. then I don't know what is.  Good becomes great when I get to share it with other people.  To the person who asks me how my day is going, to the tourist who stops me on the sidewalk for a good place to eat in my town, to the friend who asks me for a good hike with kids, to my brothers who occasionally asks for a recipe, they all get an earful because I have a lot of good stuff to share.  

Yesterday I got to share Suck Creek with my kids and some girlfriends.  It was good.  Above sharing through words and pictures and descriptions, sharing through experience is a whole lot of fun for me.  

(photo props to Sarah Beth)

There was a bit of wrestling the kids and the current and the wobbly rock bed, but overall it was good.  I was also having a flood of memories from my childhood.  My dad would bring my brothers and I here for some cheap, outside fun on those Sunday afternoons when he had "visitation."  (That's the funniest word to me...but I guess it's only funny to us divorce kids that are grown ups now.  Lauren, I'm looking at you.  Should we be laughing at that word now?)

Anyways, we were posted up by a small swimming hole with very blue water.  I think I let out a belly-squeal when I saw it because, gosh, I love it.  I came up with little catch phrases in my head and maybe some out loud?  Who needs Chlorine when Chattanooga's shore front looks like this?  It's stuff like that that is totally cheesy, but shows my deep love for my city and the outdoor adventures that it has to offer.

I stayed close to that blue hole with the kids.  We swam around, played with rocks, and climbed on small boulders.  The other girls got to explore more of the creek finding a waterfall and another blue(r) hole.  In the south we just shorten that to Creekin'.  It's a verb.  Yall wanna go creekin?  Just went creekin with the kids.  Grab your chacos, we're going creekin.  

The whole time I was happy.  Happy to be sharing it all with my kids and my friends.  I was also making mental notes of who to further share this.  (Thanks to a friend I knew that the 2nd pull-off had the easiest (but still steep) trail for kids.)  It's summertime and the fun is in full force around here.  

I hope there are many fun and free stuff going on where you are that brings you together with friends and family and gets you outside (or inside if you're one of those hates-being-hot and doesn't-want-to-tan people.)  Either way, it's summertime and the livin's fine.