The Bar

Downtown PA with the Bubba

On Monday we hit Philly, taking in the Franklin Institute (which included a bit of an adventure finding parking-remind me to take change with me next time I want to park on the street downtown) and then heading over to see Independence Square and the Liberty Bell. 

 We checked out the special exhibit on video games...

 Josh did some dancin'
 We tried the virtual reality (not that good, josh says)

 The "Flight" room might have been our favorite...

 Of course we walked through the Giant Heart and Josh climbed around in the Giant Brain

 Liberty Bell and George Washington!

Dorney Park

Josh and I hit Dorney Park on Sunday while in PA.  The weather forecast was for rain but we figured-so what? and headed over anyway.  The rain started around 2 and we left around 3...in the meantime, there was NO ONE there!  We got on every ride right away, there were no lines anywhere, Josh was able to ride the roller coasters over and over and we had a blast.  Check the weather peeps-and go to Dorney on a rainy day!!  Its awesome!

Various Fall Sporting Events

Tennis, football, soccer...we continue to make the circuit of the south metro outdoor sports venues day after day...

 Josh's team go to dress out and scrimmage on the high school football field...

 Macey made first singles in tennis!  She'll have to work hard to defend her position all season as she is challenged by her teammates but that only makes her a stronger, better player!

Gooseberry Falls

The boys and I headed up to Gooseberry Falls for a quick up and back overnight camping adventure.  We arrived after dark and had no issues finding our site or getting the tent up...the fire, well, that was a different story.  We managed to make enough fire to cook our hot dogs but s'mores were kind of out of the question.  The next morning we headed for the coastline and saw the amazing North Shore in all of its foggy glory.  As the day progressed the fog receded and I supposed by late afternoon it had burned off completely.  Us?  We hiked in the fog, saw some terrific waterfalls, faced down a ginormous frog and checked the box on "Gooseberry Falls".  I the park a lot; I think we will return again sometime and plan to spend a bit longer.

 My boys on the cliff overlooking Lake Superior.   Originally the fog was only about a 100 yards off shore-it was kind of eerie.  By the time this picture was taken, the fog was much farther out but still there.   This location reminds me of the Atlantic coastline in Maine-sheer rock straight down to the water.

 And then, as you hike along, you find yourself on a level with the water without even knowing how.  Its neat.

 No sandy beach here...its all rocks where you can imagine at high tide (lakes have tides, right?) the rocks are underwater but when the tide is low, the water is captured in tiny ponds between the rocks.

 And then, suddenly, you are up high again...

 We climbed through some rock formations to hit this little beach where the river and the lake meet up...don't swim here, I suspect the pull of the water is far more dangerous than it appears.

 So we are walking along, Josh then me then Daniel...and Josh walks right by this enormous, nasty, green, slimy frog.  I stopped Josh and told him to look down and he was scared to death-he had one of his famous laugh/cry episodes that we enjoy so much.  He says the thought he was going to have a heart attack! Once I calmed him down we trooped on past, only to look back and see Daniel contemplating his position in life-and claiming there was NO WAY he was going to go past that frog.  After laughing at him for a while (and point blank refusing to try to persuade the frog to move off the trail-I'm not above laughing at my kids for being scared of a frog but I am also not dumb-I didn't want that thing jumping on ME!!!) he finally grew a pair and ran full speed past the darn thing.  Fun.

 Little waterfalls that we thought were cool...until we got to the big waterfalls which were really cool.

 Josh took off his shoes and heading across the rocks seeking the waterfall...he was unsure how to get there on his own but a kid about his age was heading back and turned around to return and show Josh the way.  This kid makes friends where ever he goes!

 Daniel also tossed his shoes but took the left hand route while Josh went right.

 While we checked the map various times, I'm not too proud to admit that once we decided the hike was over and we wanted to head back to our campsite to take the tent down and hit the road, I was going mostly on gut...and if you know my sense of direction, that may not have been the best idea.  Did we go directly back to our tent?  Well, no, "direct" is a strong word.  Did we eventually make our way back without anyone coming to any harm?  Absolutely.

 Amazing spiderweb we encountered while on our hike.  It was dusted with rain and was simply beautiful.