Thursday, August 14, 2008

The rest of Lake Roosevelt

Ah, what a day today was. But, before I get into what happened today, I have to get everyone caught up on our vacation, including pictures. I had a bit of problem, as I mentioned in an earlier blog, with the internet connection not being the best at the campground. I finally had to give up on trying to keep my blog updated and ended up just checking my e-mail and such. Several times, while doing that, I would get some sort of error message saying something to the effect that the connection to the satellite was lost. So, we are home now and it is time to finish updating this thing.





Back now to the 6th. Marie and Henry arrived safely on the 5th. On the 6th, Marie wanted to go waterskiing, so, below, you will see a picture of Marie on two boards, skimming across the water with the greatest of ease. Note the look of complete relaxation. "Oh yeah, this is the life."



Meanwhile, back at the beach, what is happening? Not much, as can be seen in the following picture. We are back from giving Marie the waterski ride of her life. Jennie and my friends wife, Becky, are completely oblivious as to what is happening on the boat. They are just lazing around in the water, without a care in the world. But....something must be holding their attention, they both seem to be looking in the same direction. What gives with that?




Okay, later in the day, Marie decides that waterskiing is just too boring for her to do any more. Time for a new challenge, THE AIRCHAIR!!! Ah, ok, now things need a little explanation here. "I gotta do what? You mean this thing actually has a seatbelt? What happens if I fall? You mean, you really mean, that I am NOT supposed to separate myself from this thing if I fall? You mean this whole contraption stays with me? OoooKaaaaayyyyy, if you say so."




"Hey, waddya know, this whole thing floats. This might not be as bad as I thought. I think I got this thing licked already. Say what? you mean I gotta hang onto the rope and get towed behind the boat? You never mentioned that part before I agreed to try this. Oh well, since I am already strapped in, I guess I can give it a try. Ok, assume the relaxed pose."




"Hey, this isn't so bad, in fact "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.""




"Hey, this is easier then I thought. Look at me, I am actually skiing this thing on top of the water, and this is only my first time at it. I don't know what all the fuss was about, why all the instructions. I think these people around here just try to make it difficult, so maybe they can keep all this to themselves."



"Hey, WHAT THE HECK!!!!!! How.... what.....where am I going..... WHOA, STOP THIS THING, IT IS GOING UP IN THE AIR!!!! I NEVER AGREED TO THIS!!!!"



Meanwhile, once again, back on the beach, what is everyone else doing? Playing "King of the Hill" on a giant, inflatable Fun Island.



Ah, the end to a perfect day. Everyone is safe and sound and the boat is safely tied up again in the marina, ready for use on the morrow.


August 8, 2008


Ok, it is the next day now, and Marie wants to try something new again. "Hey, I want to try wakeboarding." Ok, Marie, here is what you do, get in the water, put your feet in the boots on the wakeboard, grap on to the handle and yell HIT IT!!! He He, let's all watch Marie as she flounders in the water, trying to get up on the slippery banana called a wakeboard. WHAT THE HEY, she got up on the very first try!!!! And here is a video to prove that she was up on the wakeboard. You will just have to take my word for it that she did get up on the first try, or ask her yourself if you don't believe me.





On Friday evening, we watched a lightning storm approach the campground, go over top of us, with quite a bit of rain attached to it, and then when the rain let up, we watched the storm head out away from us.

On Saturday, after Andrea showed up, Philip asked me if I would take them on a boat ride. I said sure, climb in. We took off and headed straight north, up a part of the lake called Sanpoil River. (Just a side note about this arm of Lake Roosevelt. When Grand Coulee Dam was under construction, the original town of Keller was located somewhere in this region. Since it was going to end up under water, the town had to relocate futher north.) About 8 miles up this arm, is another campground called Sanpoil Campground. Almost directly across the water from this campground, as we were just drifting and talking about the lake and the slight difference in terrain from further south, Philip spotted a young bear cub cruising the shoreline. We tracked him from the boat for about 20 minutes as he kinda kept an eye on us and also fed on huckleberries. At one time, he actually came right down to the water to get a drink of water. Very cool. It was a real bummer that none of us had a camera to take a picture or two of it. A few years ago, we saw another bear slightly south of this location and on the same side of the river as the campground. This one was fully grown and didn't stick around very long after we spotted it.

The next day, Jennie, Kevin and I went back up there to see if we could find it again. We didn't see it, but we did find a Bald Eagle nest up in a tree right on the shoreline. We couldn't tell for sure because we didn't see them, but we think there were some young eagles in the nest because we did hear a lot of "crying" whenever one of the parents was nearby. This time, we did have a camera, but because of where the nest was located, we couldn't get a real good view of it with the camera.





On Sunday, while sitting down on the beach, we had a deer walk right by us on the road, head towards the nearest bush and start browsing on it. Kinda cool, except that we see a lot, and I mean a lot, of deer in the area. One morning, I was withing about 20 feet of a deer while it was browsing on some bushes, right across the street from the campground.

On Wednesday morning, we packed everything up and bid good-bye to all our friends at the campground and headed home. We got home about 4:30, got most of the stuff out of the camper and called it a day. Tomorrow, I will post another blog about what happened today, so TTFN.

No comments: