Vacation - Day 4

Saturday was supposed to be a day we took it easy and hung out.  Chris doesn’t understand “taking it easy”.

We went for a hike on a trail that the campground folks told us was really cool.  It was a trail that led to Hawk Falls.  We took the dogs thinking they would like the outdoors and could use a long walk.  We were hoping they were still a bit tired from their time at the dog sitters.  If they were it sure didn’t show.  They loved the trails and people.  Abby loved the people a bit too much.  She is a bit forceful in her like of people.  When I got them close to the water it was tough to get them out.  They loved trying to bite the white water as it rushed over the rocks.  Just letting the dogs splash around seemed to be enough to keep them happy.

When we came to the end of the trail there was a large waterfall that dumped into a deep pool which flowed to a second waterfall that also dumped into a deep pool.  This was very attractive for the amateur daredevil (guys).  Jason saw this and handed over his shirt and shoes.  He started at the small waterfall jumping in and freezing.  The cold water did not slow him down a bit.  We then noticed some teenagers, young 20’s, jumping off the large waterfall.  Jay was all over it.  He asked some kid how to get up there and before we knew it he was following them up the side of the hill out to the rock face.  He waited and listened to others give advice, watched a couple of people jump and then went for it.  On his first try he was a bit over cautious and slipped.  He compensated and made the jump with no ill effects.  No ill effects to him.  His Mom and I almost fell over.  You can hear us on the video gasp.  He got the hang of it and jumped about 500 more times.  Sam and I got bored.  I had both dogs and they wanted to play with the people.  Unfortunately they play rough sometimes and they were very excited that they were in the water.  Those two things were making it very tough to keep the dogs in check.  On the way out of the park we found the upper path that led to the top of the falls.  The older folks were jumping from up there.  Jason said he was going to jump from there next time.

The next morning we broke down our tents and headed home.  The drive home always feels longer than the drive there.

They were loving the river.

Aren't they cute!

A view of the falls.

Vacation - Day 3

As I previously mentioned we brought the dogs.  I have an 18 month old Sheppard-Husky mix and a 5 year old Lab-Retriever ex-PAWS working dog.   They are both very energetic.  Chris found a no kennel boarding place for them near where we were.  This helped since we couldn’t take them rafting, which they would have loved, or with us on Friday.  We went to Hoboken, New Jersey and visited Carlo’s bakery.  Yes folks, Hoboken, New Jersey.  Not too many folks will tell you that that is where they went on vacation.

We surprised Samantha since somehow Cake Boss became a show she just loved to watch.  Chris looked online and found that folks said to get there early as the wait can be 2 hours or more.  We shot for early in the morning.  We still stood in line for two hours.

When we were able to get inside it was a take-a-number organization kind of place and it went pretty well.  Chris and Sam picked out a small sampling of items and they were fairly reasonably priced.  Sam also got a t-shirt.  She was so happy.  We walked around to the alley and saw a couple of the workers loading up boxes into a van for delivery. 

We went back to the van to take off.  We were headed to the teardrop memorial to 9/11.  Afted removing the parking ticket from the window, we were off.  (Street parking is not allowed during certain hours for street sweeping)  We were headed to Bayonne, New Jersey to see the Tear Drop memorial.  It was a very cool memorial.  Tough to find, which is too bad because it is so interesting.

We went back and picked up our pooped out pooches and headed back to the camp site.  We had Chinese takeout, remember my fire skills were lacking, and had the Carlo’s treats for desert.

Not bad, but not two-hours-in-a-line good either.

Sam is so excited to be here!

Organized Chaos

Sleepy Dogs

Carlo's treats

Vacation - Day 2

On the second day of or camping adventure we went rafting.  We went with Jim Thorpe river Adventures on the Lehigh River.  They were fairly mild Class 2 rapids as this was the first time for the kids and they aren’t old enough for the faster water.  It was a fantastic trip and a good time was had by all.  Since we were camping in the boonies we had no idea where to eat.  We needed to pack a lunch for the rafting trip.  We hadn’t seen a store anywhere.  We ended up stopping at this little hole in the wall sandwich and doughnut shop.  Breakfast and lunch, check!  Those sandwiches were awesome!  Really good and they held up well to the beating they took as we rafted.  The first half of the day we were the project raft.  Always in the back and getting stuck.  After lunch we became super-rafters and somehow missed the rocks and navigated our way through the rough parts without incident.  We ended the day on a high note and took the bus ride back to the raft place.  We took showers, and were off to the campground to attempt to build a fire.

Scouts or not, I suck at building fires.  We got one going well enough to make some smores and heat a couple of hot dogs.  The rain and wetness may have had something to do with it but fire just wasn’t our thing on this trip.

The first set of rapids.

Jason got hot.

All smiles!

Vacation - Day 1

Chris decided we needed to go camping.  So with bathroom remodel money in hand, we went camping.  We headed to Hickory Run State park in Pennsylvania.  It was about 8 hours away so we planned to leave early Wednesday morning.  Tuesday night as we were packing I went to put the car top carrier on the van.  Since the brackets are in the carrier and the carrier is locked I needed to find the key.  No key.  So I drilled out the rivets holding the lock in place.  Opened the carrier but I now had a new problem.  How am I gonna secure the carrier or hold it shut.  I drilled the lock holes a bit bigger and ran a chain through them, which I can put a regular lock on.  Problem solved.  That only ate up a couple of hours.  Most of our gear fit in the carrier so the interior was roomy enough to fit the dogs and two kids.

We brought books and movies for the kids and we made pretty good time.  Since the campsite had electric hookups we grabbed a box fan from the house.  (Great idea by the way) We arrived in the evening and had the tents setup (almost) before dark.

Sad Day

On Wednesday July 13^th my Dad passed away.  This is the link to the obituary the Funeral Home put up.

http://lynchfamilyfuneraldirectors.com/death_notice.aspx?Operation=preview&noticeid=2033

Getting older

I know I haven’t posted anything in awhile. I have a good excuse. I am old. I now understand why contractors hire 19 year old kids to do construction. I understand what needs to be done and I can do the work. It just seems to take longer to do it and a lot longer to recover. (Sorry, there was a double entendre in there.)

So I removed the ceiling and began the install of the whole house fan. The outside temps are in the 90’s so the attic temperature is in the low to mid 130’s. I told Chris we could build a sauna without the rocks if we pipe in attic air. The Whole house fan was an interesting install. Getting the boards cut just right to center the fan over the joist was tough. The temps made it difficult to measure as the sweat was getting in my eyes. I had gotten the fan housing in early so I could figure out where to place it. The metal was getting to hot to handle. This build needs to end so I can turn the fan on just to cool the attic.

I removed the copper waste lines and plan to replace them with PVC. The PVC is just a bit bigger and placing it has become a challenge.


I have a couple of photos of the progress. (Or lack thereof)

The whole house fan from the hallway.

Our new bathroom vent fan.

I believe it was starting to cool off.

The placement of the Attic fan and the gutted bathroom.