Fun Around Tunkhannock

We don't generally work on the weekends and we don't work when family comes to visit.  Cathy, Markus' daughter, and three kids drove up from Philly for three days.  Fun was had by all, including catching frogs around the pond.  The pond has been a miracle this summer.  It isn't leaking and due to some good rains it is full to overflowing.  We go swimming almost every day.  Miro and Zax love to catch frogs (though they are not successful).



















Here Bob is helping Miro and Zax catch fish.  Once we figured out that grasshoppers were the preferred bait, Bob's job was to catch the grasshoppers and put them on the hooks and help the kids put their catch into the aquarium on the deck.  They were released each day.  They caught a lot of fish (six to eight each day).







While her brothers were catching fish, Anaya was sitting in the pond splashing and enjoying life.  She is a completely mellow little girl who entertains herself for long periods.










Here she is really enjoying spaghetti.  She is also a really good eater.












One cool day we headed for Stony Brook.  None of us had been there since the flood two years ago.  There is still lots of evidence of flood damage; new rip rap, new road, repaired bridges, dead trees in the stream, a dam scoured out, etc.  Stony Brook was running high.  There is a flume you can ride down.  Both Markus and I did it several times.  It's quite exciting.






Here I am going down.













We also went to the Triton Hose Company Carnival (home of all things fried).  In addition to steamed clams (quite good), there is pizza, piroghis, pulled pork sandwiches, ice cream, potato pancakes, fruit flops (fried bread dough with fruit on top), beer and carnival rides.  Miro and Zax got to ride the rides while the rest of us watched.







Cathy rode the carousel with Anaya.












We also went to Steamtown National Park in Scranton to ride the train and look at the museum.  At one time there were more miles of railroads in northeastern Pennsylvania than anywhere else in the US.  There is still a shortline railroad that operates.  Steamtown used to be in Maine or Vermont until it fell on hard financial times and the National Park Service stepped in and moved it to Scranton.  We ate lunch at Abe's Deli (a true east coast Jewish deli).






Mom, Markus, Carol, Bob and I went to the Montrose Blueberry Festival which is a benefit for the Montrose library.  There is a tremendous book sale and we all bought piles of books for as little as 50 cents apiece or $10 for a huge box.  Markus got lots of Zane Gray books of the wild west and old first edition adventure books.  There is a museum in the fire hall (which used to be a house).  The fire department has been around since around 1827.











Montrose was quite a wealthy town and we walked around and looked at the mansions.  This was the jail until the 1990s.











Here is one of the beautiful houses in Montrose.












Another weekend Bob, Mom and I went to Hickory Run State Park so Bob could play disc golf.  Mom and I walked down one side of Hickory Run and up the other.  One side was through a tunnel of rhododendrons and the other side was in the trees.  The stream was in dappled shade and we saw only two other people.







Another view of Hickory Run.)
















Another weekend Mom, Markus, Bob and I returned to Honesdale, after a detour to buy maple syrup, so that Markus could see the Sturbridge Lion (the first locomotive in the US).  We walked around Honesdale, which also had a lot of nice large houses, including this armory (now the YMCA and having seen better days).







Elizabeth drove up from Philadelphia to visit for three days and we took a walk on a rail-to-trail just outside Tunkhannock.