Fourth of July weekend

Jack's girl friend, Gia, was able to accompany us on this trip. We played tourist to show her the area where I grew up and Jack spent his summers as a younger child.

 The first stop was at the Austin Dam. I remember fishing at the base of the dam as a child. We had to park on the road and climb down the bluff to the stream. It was just a small stream and my brothers and I fished while my mother read. I remember that my youngest brother fancied himself a fly fisherman. The rest of us just dropped our worms in the water and waited for a bite. Brian on the other hand spent the entire time casting and reeling, casting and reeling, casting and reeling. It drove me absolutely insane.

This trip was slightly different in that though Jack also prefers to fly fish, there was another person (I won't call him a fisherman) who was splashing up and down the creek casting once and moving on. There was no way there were any fish going to be caught in that stream any time soon!

We got to my mother's and had lunch before heading out to Kinsua Dam. Here, we showed Gia the dam and the spillway which was filled with carp and there were people throwing bread so we not only got to see the fish eat but watch the birds catch the bread mid flight. After convincing Jack that he did indeed want to fish from the observation area and not the boat launch, we spent about thirty minutes as he tried to fish the fast moving stream. He had only been pond fishing so it was quite an experience trying to gauge the current and his casting. The entire time he was fishing, we were listening to thunder. The lightening seemed to be cloud lightning so we weren't too concerned about a strike. We left just in time to miss getting hit by the downpour. It did rain pretty hard while we drove to several areas to show Gia more of the area.

The next morning we spent with my father working on the four wheeler. It was a very nice visit and we did get the four wheeler running again after sitting for four years. It seems that a new battery and spark plug were needed, but the real issue was with the choke which had come unwired and the throttle needed adjusted.

 After another lunch with my mother, we went to the Kinsua railroad bridge. I knew they had been doing work on the visitor center, but I was shocked with the changes. We managed to arrive just as the visitor center closed, so we didn't get to see the changes inside. That was okay as there were a lot of informational areas along the pathway. The kids had come to run the trails. I explored the changes to the area and took pictures from the bluff of the bridge. I didn't feel the need to walk out to the end. I've been there before and didn't need to kick up my vertigo.

 As we were driving out, a small deer was drinking from a puddle in the road. Gia said, I want to pet them. This lead to a plan to visit the deer park on the way home. After a very nice family picnic at camp in which the rain held off until after lunch, we headed out to the deer park. Though both my kids had been here with my mom, I had never stopped. I also did not know that the kids had done the gem mining at the deer park. Further along the road, there is another tourist stop that has large 'gem mining' signs and looks like an old mine. We go to the deer park while it was raining. Just as we arrived, two little girls came out with their bags of sand and stones to gem mine in the trough. I had never really noticed it before, but there it was and Jack assured me he had gotten his gems there. The deer were tucked away in their shelter, but Jack and Gia went out to see them. I picked up an abandoned cup of food from the seating area and went to join them. I noticed there was a canon shooting area and went to look at it. As I moved to the other end of the area, the deer came out of the shelter. The only went as far as a grove of trees. Soon they ventured over to Jack and Gia. She finally got to pet the deer!

 After some browsing, we moved on to the 'gem mining' stop. They actually had a two person stand and the rest of what I saw was just a store. However, there was a train car that contained seating and drop down sleeper space as well as a dining area. They also had a bear dressed as a conductor which Gia thought was really cute and picture worthy. I thoroughly enjoyed playing tourist in my own home town!