Monday, July 24, 2017

Crater Lake - Day 3 and 4

Diamond Lake was on our agenda for today.  When every last kid is whining to go swimming, what's a dad to do, but find a lake.  He found one, situated about 40 minutes from our campsite.  We could not swim in the river behind our campsite because the current was way too strong - I had visions of children being sucked into the twisting, turning, rushing Rogue River.

The sun was shining, glorious and warm without a cloud in the sky to be seen.  The water was blue, not as vibrant as Crater Lake, but none the less beautiful.  George was the first brave soul to jump in and wade out as far as he could stand on his tip toes.  The girls followed - skittishly, squealing as their bodies hit the 40 something-ish degree water.


We drove over to the other side of the lake, where we found Diamond Lake Resort.  After lunch Dad took the kids on a paddle boat ride around the lake for about 45 minutes and gave momma the last 15 minutes.  That was all that my legs could take.  Feel the burn baby!


When a morning of fishing with Dad led to no fish caught, but lots of mosquito bites, dinner was turned into beer can chicken instead of fried fish.  The rest of the day was spent relaxing.  Grandma and Poppa enjoyed an afternoon of watching downloaded movies from Netflix, while Dad taught the three littler kids to whittle. Several knives were crafted and I did see the makings of a gun at one point.  It was just like clock work every afternoon - like a bunch of baby ducklings following momma- Grandma, Poppa and five children exited the cabin and proceeded to the ice cream shop next to us.


Three of the kids participated in the Junior Ranger program through the National Parks .  This is an absolute must to do if you ever visit a National Park.  Each child gets a workbook to seek and find the answers to word searches, mazes, puzzles and short answers.  Once the workbooks are completed they get turned back in to a ranger.

This time the kids actually got questioned about their answers.  I overheard the ranger ask what their favorite spot at Crater Lake was and to describe the things they had learned while there.  After all the questions were answered, they each got a badge and the ranger officially introduced them as the newest Junior Rangers. 





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