Well it there is a place that is a hidden treasure. If I tell you, you can't spread the word about it. Ready? We went to the Oneida Narrows Area. It is so podunk, that no one knows much about it. But it was really fun.
Day 1 (Thursday) -- We packed up our truck (to the brim) and finally left the house around 1:00. We picked up the trailer and hit the road. I wasn't too long of a drive and Boom! we were there. We found a campsite near the river and set up the trailer.
Hannalee made sure that her baby was well taken care of.
Tayo sat back and supervised. (Looking closely at the picture you will see: 1-Tayo did not leave home with out his blanket and 2-the Mountain Dew box = Bob's dirty little secret. :0)
We took a drive up to the reservoir at the top of the canyon.
Our children have very different opinions about water. Here is Tayo:
And here is Hannalee:
This is as far as she got in.
We went back to camp and made a great campfire with hot dogs and marshmallows. Tayo was in bed by 8:30 and I was going to let Hannalee stay up and chill by the fire with us. But at 9:00 she kept asking when bedtime was and was happy when I told her right now.
Tayo was sleeping on the queen side pull out with Hannalee sleeping on the bench below him. Around midnight there was a loud crash followed by Tayo's crying. He had rolled off the bed and onto Hannalee (only about a foot drop). Through all of this Hannalee didn't even wake up! So Tayo came over to sleep with us (on the king side pull out). We learned something about Tayo's sleeping habits. He is a mover and a roller. He was all over the place and wouldn't stay still even when we thought he was asleep. Finally at 4:00am I moved over to the queen bed leaving Bob and Tayo to stretch out a bit more in the king bed.
Day 2 -- Good morning crazy haired girl!
Nice pose Hannie.
A view from our campsite.
Not far from Oneida Narrows and about 15 minutes above Preston is the most redneck water park. But I do love it! It is built on a hot spring so it has one warm pool, a hot tub, warm water slide, plus a cool pool (which was refreshing on the day we went). The best thing about this water park is how relaxed the workers are. At most places they require age or height limits for the slide, no life jackets or floaty tubes on the slide, workers at the top telling you when to go, etc. Not here. There is one life guard in the whole place and she spent most of her time texting. Now this could be worry some, but I think it made it relaxing. I am in charge of watching my children, but I also don't have to worry if they are breaking some rules.
Now the most redneck part is the slide. Walking up to the top, you wonder if your going to make it. The stairs are very rusted, the boards are squishy and you wonder if your going to fall through. It is 9 flights of stairs up too! But the slide going down is slow and long. Hannalee loved it! Tayo is still undecided.
That night we had some warn out kids. We reassigned sleeping arrangements which worked great. Hannalee slept on the queen bed and Tayo slept on the floor under the bench by the queen bed. I thought he would freak out, but he slept all night and even all of his naps there.
Bob's brothers, Don and Jim, joined us that night.
Day 3 -- The day of river rafting/tubing. The Oneida Narrow's river is known for its tubing. The river is wide, deep, and not huge rapids. The top half is very calm and easy, yet it moves quickly and keeps tubers moving. The first trip down I did with the brothers while Bob stayed with the kids. I was in the tube which is the funnest (I think) and the brother did rafts because they didn't want to get wet.
The second time down Hannalee and I get a raft and Don did a tube. Hannalee loved it and loved the "bunpety bumps" (tiny rapids). We stopped at our camp site which is half way down the river and packed up camp. Then Bob and I floated the bottom half of the river and the brothers met us down at the take out point. The bottom half of the river has more rapids and rocks. Nothing to huge, but they make it more of a challenge.
It was a fun trip!
No comments:
Post a Comment