A picture of the tavern and lodge along the canal, now used as a museum.
Some of the locks are still functioning and some were not. Because of the rapid rise in the land (thus the falls) there were frequent locks to be navigated.
Again it was a warm day and the shade along the canal was appreciated.
And walking over to the falls. This river is huge and the falls are in sections divided by rocks and an island.
Lucas and Kate on the right walking across the boardwalk on the island to look at the Virginia shore of the falls.
What you can't hear is Lucas' and Kate's discussion of which of the kayaking routes might actually be survivable. Kate looked up the falls and found that sections were rated either 5 or 5 plus depending upon which part of the water you were observing. They figured which of their friends would actually run it. Walking down the tow path along the canal before we reached the path to the fall's overlook, we had passed several kayakers carrying their kayaks back towards the parking lot and the top of the fall. After seeing the falls I would have been so tempted to ask them questions about how and where they went down the run.
I couldn't really tell if this kayaker had already made the run of the fall or was just playing around in the fast water coming out of the last slot.... Too much current for this flat water paddler.
A glance to the sides of the walkway gives you a vision of the trees that get pulled down the current during high water flooding.
A quiet back pool with a lot of signage warning you not to get carried away and think you should actually get in the water. We noticed a helicopter flying overhead and Kate the quick "google" checker announced that the park service use the helicopter to patrol the falls. Sounded like a good idea to me...an ability to protect people from their own poor choices.
Decided this is an example of a mule pen near the tow path. Need a fresh mule just park them along the path and change them out as necessary!
The back of the tavern.
We got back to the tavern just in time to see two mules heading out pulling the canal barge up the canal. The traces behind the mules are very very long. And I wouldn't want to be the walkers in period costumes walking along with the mules.
Here is the barge with the mules far out in front to the right.
After spending the 4th of July at the falls Lucas, Kate and I met up on Friday to head over to Annapolis harbor and a two hour sail. It was warm enough out that I didn't think I wanted to be the one paddling the kayak and the two kids through the harbor. Looks like work! Notice her feet. This is one of the kayaks that have a foot operated paddle.
And on to the sail boat after plenty of sunscreen.
Lucas on the right helping raise one of the sails.
If you look carefully you can pick out the small sail boats with numbers. They were manned by youth and appeared to be from the a local club. They seeme to be practicing their sailing maneuvers around a slightly larger boat. They were circling and tacking back and forth. It all looked like fun.
The captain had several of the youngsters try their hand at the helm. This young man had the most focus and definitely took his role seriously. He didn't need a lot of corrections. That couldn't be said for all the volunteers.
Back at my new campsite located in the front lawn area of my cousin's property the dogs enjoyed AC during the heat of the day thanks to the generator and the tank of gas I filled right before arriving. My research was not tightly controlled but it seems I used about 12 gallons of gas over three days running the AC 10-12 hours per day. Not bad for a site in the trees.
Looking from my patio area you can't even see the front of the house. The generator couldn't be heard from the house...especially not from the back patio.
The back patio.
Son, Ben, and his friend Taryn headed down to the dock along with Kate and Luca for a swim in the bay back waters. The thought of hauling the kayak down for a paddle was not followed through because of the heat.
The afternoon included lawn games.....
The evening included seafood dinner out. Lucas has mallet in hand to demonstrate technique.
Just a picture of some of my favorite real estate which just happens to be up for sale down the road. It is being handled by Sothebys. Comes with a huge barn with living quarters for the help above.
Ben and Taryn and Lucas and Kate had left by the time everyone got herded out to the porch for the traditional reunion picture on Saturday. It was so hot that folks found it hard to mingle, mostly we were trying to stay cool.
I thought that we had all missed the evening fireworks when I heading out about 8 to meet the kids for dinner. Later while sitting out on the water eating our food there appeared a series of fireworks across the water above the point directly across from us. Quite professional quality fireworks I might add. I found out Sunday that we hadn't missed my cousin's fireworks at all, I just didn't realize where their property was in relationship to where we were eating. We watched the show even noticed the long pauses between displays....something about very long fuses for safety I was told later.
So here is the official Reunion 2013 picture..... minus those that left earlier in the afternoon. (There were several groups that stopped by and had to leave earlier not just mine.)
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