Mini-Vacation, Part 2

The second day of the mini-vacation was the cabin that D's step mom has on the Susquehanna River. It's a beautiful location and the river is over a mile wide so it feels more like a big lake instead of a river.

We started with a boat ride down the river. Our first stop was at the nuclear power plant that uses the river water to cool the nuclear reactors. Nothing worthy of photo, but it was interesting because the water in that area is sometimes as hot as 100 degrees! Hot enough that someone recently caught a piranha in the water - attracted by the warm water!

On a particularly calm creek that feeds into the Susquehanna we saw these incredibly cute baby deer. I have NEVER seen deer so small!!

This picture does not do their cuteness or their smallness any justice

Friday night we went to dinner at a restaurant right on the water. Honestly, my dinner was not that good, but I didn't say anything. I ordered a blackened steak, but there was so much fat in it that I hardly ate any meat at all. If you know me, you know that I cut around fat like crazy and only like the actual meal. The thought of eating an animal's raw fat disgusts me. I don't understand why more people wouldn't want to avoid it.

Anyway, after dinner, D and his brother set off fireworks!! Their dad found a huge packet of fireworks in his attic that were probably at least 10 years old. We didn't have much hope for them, but they turned out really great!!!

One of the fireworks, from my perspective on the stairs of the deck. Yes, I was hit with smoldering ash. Scary.

The next morning (Saturday) the plan was the pick raspberry's and then go rock jumping at a place where D used to play as a child. The raspberry's were wildly picked over though and I quickly got a rash from the briers. It was too much work, so everyone quickly gave up. I don't even eat raspberry's so my commitment to the project wasn't ever strong anyway.

Then we went to Lock 12, an old historical lock just off of the Susquehanna that was used for moving ships up and down the river. For those who don't know how locks work - Basically, a boat would be pulled into the lock by horses. The back gate of the lock would close and the lock would fill with water, rising the boat. Then, when the boat was high enough to continue upstream they opened the upper gate and horses pulled the boat up into the next level of the damn. It was pretty interesting!

We walked across the rocks at a part of the river just below on the dams.

Although the picture makes it look like there were a lot of rocks and land, it was actually mostly water. So much so, that there were areas that we couldn't cross because there was too much water between point A and point B. D and S (above in blue) were much more nimble than I and hopped from walk to walk like they were mountain goats! I - on the other hand - took my sandals off and just walked through the water. I didn't want to get hurt or get my sandals wet!

Crawfish, anyone?

The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing at the cabin. D's step mom through an anchor down a dozen or so yards from the dock, and everyone took tubes and beverages out, not unlike the picture below.


I did some reading and sunbathing before joining everyone in the water. (Those black tubes and my skin are NOT friends.) I eventually commandeered the raft that the baby is in (in the right of the picture.) No worries, he was tired of floating.

Saturday evening we packed up our bags and got into the car to head to Delaware to pick up Murph! Part 3 will be brief, but I promise it will also be cute!