Family Camp

We recently got back from taking our older granddaughters to our Church Family Camp. Our Church rents a boy scout camp up at Crescent Lake, which is fairly high in the Cascade Mountains, and we spent most of five days there. It was beautiful but we experienced some frosty nights, so were glad for our trailer and it's heater. Kory worked on the 'A' team...which is a group of teens that serve our meals, clean up and do the dishes and even clean the bathrooms for us. She did a great job and even did it with a smile!

We had a few 'granddaughter hugs' along the way...and you can see the beauty of the lake and trees in this photo.

Kory and her friends also enjoyed some free time and had fun on a boat and 'hot dog', at the lake.

The insurance man looks for artifacts wherever he goes and found a couple at the lake's edge. This is especially to show Sam, Will, Ben and Cal.

Kendall stayed with us in our trailer. Kory tented it with two other girls, and piled on the blankets. The camp leaders brought their two springer spaniel pups, and Kendall and Alex enjoyed them. Kendall is holding 'Sadie'.

Kendall spent a lot of her time riding my bike, all around the trails and camp.

The rest of her time she played board games...and always found someone willing to play a game.

Just before leaving we took a family photo of some tired, dirty, happy campers!

LAST DAY/ SEEING PITTSBURGH

Julie: The last day with mom and Kory, I drove them to Pittsburgh and we did a little sightseeing before getting a hotel room for some rest before their flight home. Peter stayed home with the boys and I just took my girls, so it ended up being a bit of a girls night. After a long period of sitting in evening traffic and several wrong turns resulting in more waiting, we finally made it to Station Square and found a Chinese Restaurant to feed our starving selves.Julie: This is Millie with...can you guess?

Julie: A take-home container that the waitress turned into a "sippy-cup" and added a crepe paper decoration. Very creative and very appreciated.

Julie: Millie got to sit right between Kory and mom. She loved all the time and attention.
Jennie: and Grammy loved giving it to her!

Jennie: The food was delicious...Julie and I ordered Thai food, and mine was just a bit on the spicy side. Julie really enjoyed hers...

Julie: The Chinese Restaurant was in the old train station at Station Square. In another part of the station we found a play area for kids.

Julie: Grammy is getting in her last minutes with her granddaughters.

Julie: There is an outdoor courtyard on the river's edge at Station Square. There was a fountain show going on when we got there.

Julie: Some downtown buildings seen through the spray.

Julie: Watching the fountains.

Julie: There is a bessemer used for steel production, which Pittsburgh is famous for, on display on the other side of the fountain.

Julie: The funniest part is that regardless of the many people gathered to watch the fountain show, mom was thrilled over the Beach Boys music that was playing and was singing along and dancing with Millie. :)

Jennie: It was SO much fun...they didn't just play one Beach Boys song, but a whole concert of them. Millie and I had a great time dancing, but Kory declined (can't imagine why?) I think she did sing along though.

Julie: After Station Square we went over to the historic incline that transports people up and down Mt. Washington.

Jennie: This was something we had wanted to do ever since Julie and Peter moved to Pennsylvania. Now, many years later, we finally had the chance.

Julie: The sun was going down and we were getting ready to go up.
Jennie: It was the perfect time of day, with the light just right.

Julie: Green light above the door means we can board.

Julie: Looking up the track as I was boarding.
Jennie: It was a little nerve racking looking up that rickety looking track...I wasn't at all sure they knew what they were doing. The incline is over 100 years old, and I'm sure they have testing done on it all the time, but still?

Julie: Inside the trolley car.

Julie: A picture of Point State Park out the window of the car.

Jennie: I feel compelled to give a spot of history here...this is where Pittsburgh started, right here at the point. George Washington was stationed at Fort Pitt here on the point, early in his military career. It is called the point because it is the meeting place of three rivers...the Allegheny, the Monongahela (the kids call it the 'Mona', and the Ohio. It is the confluence of the Allegheny and Mona (the two you see in the photo) that form the Ohio River, and it continues flowing north-westerly on from here.

Julie: A full downtown Pittsburgh shot from the observation deck at the station at the top of the incline.

Jennie: Isn't the light wonderful? You can even see the rivers better in this shot. The lights were just beginning to come on in the buildings...and we stayed here a long time enjoying the view.

Julie: The incline descending below us.

Jennie: It was interesting to see how the cars stuck out from the track horizontally...attached at the rear.

Julie: Miss Amelia's view of the city.

Julie: Kory is enjoying the scene.

Jennie: I really like this picture, as it just about sums up our entire trip. All just wonderful!

Julie: Amelia is watching the giant gears that make the incline work and Kory is surveying a map of Pittsburgh.

Jennie: I wish we had gotten some photos of the inside of the station. It was all original wood, even the little ticket booth. A really great and fun place to visit. Julie said that she will be taking first time visitors here to the incline for sure.

Julie: Ah. We were so tired. Here's Millie on the window seat of the hotel room.

Julie: Saying goodbye to Kory.

Jennie: We knew we would be up before Julie and the girls, so we said good-bye before going to sleep. Saying good-bye is always the hardest part.

Jennie: Thank you Julie for being such a wonderful daughter, aunt and world's best hostess.

Beach Trip, Second Day

Jennie: After getting ready for the day, while waiting for a bit of breakfast the kids enjoyed a few cartoons...a rare luxury and a real treat for them! Peter went out and found a big box of Dunkin' Doughnuts, along with some juice and coffee for our breakfast. We had a family worship/devotion time before Sam, Will, Kory and I headed down to the swimming pool.Julie: Enjoying the view from the balcony. Millie is waving to her brothers who are swimming in the pool down below.

Julie: There's the pool. My mom and Kory were sitting under the umbrella in the top left corner.

Julie: And there's Sam and Will.

Julie: Our balcony faced south. If you look to the left (East), this is the view. Just on the other side of the buildings is the Atlantic Ocean.

Julie: And if you look to the right (west), this is the view. That is the twin of our Motel and the bay.

Julie: We checked out of the Motel and took off to see what we could see on Assateague Island for day 2.

Julie: We passed some deer beside the road on our drive in.

Julie: The first stop was on the west side of the Island in the marshlands.

Julie: It was very windy, but a beautiful day.

Julie: All ready to explore.

Julie: Donning the glasses.

Julie: People were all along these shoreline docks fishing for shellfish.

Julie: We were looking, but not sure what shellfish to be looking for exactly.

Julie: We decided to read some of the information posted and learned a lot about the Maryland Blue Crab.

Julie: Some marshland.

Julie: I think we're ready to go across and explore some of this marsh.

Julie: Heading out.

Julie: Grammy walked out with us, but stopped where the dock stopped.

Julie: The rest of us took off our shoes and waded through the marshes to explore. Kory was saying something like, "EWW! Gross!" the whole time. She didn't like the mud squishing between her toes.

Julie: The boys don't mind the mud. They thought this was just great.

Julie: As we were leaving we got a good look at a Blue Crab that someone caught.

Julie: Wow! It was windy!

Julie: There. That's what she actually looks like, without windblown hair.

Julie: Our second stop was on the other side of the Island, to swim.

Julie: We remembered to get out the boogy boards this time and so they had some fun riding the waves in to shore.

Julie: Kory buried Millie in the sand.

Julie: We had taken a lot of swimming pictures the day before and our camera batteries were dying, so there weren't too many of our beach time on Assateague. We did however, see some wild ponies on our way off the island and really had to take a picture to prove that we'd seen them. They amazingly graze right next to the road.

Julie: Hurray! We saw the famous wild ponies of Assateague Island!
Jennie: Just to give a little background...I had never heard of Assateague Island actually, but it's part of an island chain off the Atlantic coast that is a nationally protected seashore, and famous for it's wild ponies. The story goes that years ago, a spanish ship sank off the coast and these ponies swam to shore to several of these islands. The ones we saw are the pony descendents, and they have never left the island. They roam around eating and are content with their island home. Julie told me that there is a famous book written for girls about the ponies on Assateague.

Julie and I especially appreciated seeing the ponies up close.

Jennie: This is basically the end of our trip. We drove home after this exiting day, arriving rather grubby and tired, but satisfied in the wee hours. The next day, Julie and I along with the girls drove to Pittsburgh where we got a motel for the night. Kory and I took the shuttle to the airport at 4am, and Julie and girls slept in blissfully and after shopping for a few groceries headed home. Kory and I had a great flight to Portland, and will always remember the memories we made and the fun we had.