Random Vacation pictures...

Sleep Over!

Our cabin had only 3 bedrooms, but there was 6 of us. This meant that 2 people shared the living room. Dave & Chels had a futon and later added an air mattress to make their living room/Bed room more comfortable. My dad brought a mini-tv, so Jesse brought his collection of MST3K Dvds to share with everyone. Here the boys are concentrating on one of the episodes while Chels looks confused.

Antenna!

As I said before my dad brought a tv and well the boys really wanted to watch the Football game on Sunday. The thing is we were in a state park in the middle of nowhere with almost no reception at all and the weather really wasn't helping. Jesse was determined to get reception and watch the game, so he kept fidgeting with the antenna. He would get it to work ok, but that was never good enough for him and he would move it again loosing all reception. My mom finally jokingly suggested he just put it on his head and see what happens. It actually worked pretty well.  Surprisingly! 

Night night!

One night while staying up watching some Dvds Dave and I realized that Jesse and Chelsey were no longer with us. They'd both passed out pretty early. To much early morning fishing for them I guess.

Our new friend!

One day we heard a loud thud and David said "What was that? I think something hit the window." We went out of the porch to investigate and found this little lady. She'd flown straight into our window. She was laying on the porch looking pretty rough. We weren't sure if she broke her neck or not. David picked her up and she sat in his hand for a while obviously dazed. We eventually put her on the porch railing and waited to see what happened. She sat their for quite sometime and puffed herself up to look tough, but it took her a while to gain her wits and fly off again. There was much debate over what kind of bird she actually is, but after consulting a bird book at Grandpa & Ginnie's house we believe she is a Pine Warbler.

Field or Dreams...

I'm sure you all remember the movie Field of Dreams with Kevin Costner. Well if you didn't know it was actually filmed in northern Iowa on a little farm outside of Dyersville. When we were little we visited this site several times. They used to hold actual ball games on the field with local men dressing up as old time ball players and it really was a fun outing for the family. Unfortunately they don't hold games so much anymore and we when we stopped it was a really dreary day. Jesse and mom decided to stay in the car and sleep through our visit. I think they were exhausted from our Pikes Peak hike.

 I told Dave if he bought a bat we had to take a picture of someone batting. 

It's a really nice farm house.

 Don't worry Jesse didn't totally miss out. We got him a shirt form the gift shop.

Pikes Peak, Iowa...

Yep there is actually a Pikes Peak in Iowa too. Who knew? Apparently Mr. Pike discovered the peak in Iowa before discovering the obviously bigger one in Colorado.

There were only about a million stairs, but it was really beautiful and totally worth the hike. Thankfully they had benches along the route for those of us who needed a little breather.

* Side note: Mr. Pike's first name is actually Zebulon, interesting fact. Jesse and I are adding the name Zebulon to the list of possible names for our future children, so what if it sounds like an alien name. Joking!

Waterfall...

Outside of Spook Cave in the campground area there is a beautiful little waterfall. They had a tent and chairs set up for what looked like a wedding. We decided it was the perfect back drop for a group picture.

A truly beautiful back drop for a wedding or a family picture.

Spook Cave...

I definitely remember visiting Spook Cave as a kid, but I do not remember it being such a tight fit. Let's just say at some points of our journey through the cave we had to squish up as tight as we could with our heads between our legs and sometimes squish in as tight as we could with our neighbors. Poor Jesse got stuck on a bench between me and Chels, so he got seriously squished at one point.

 Mom taking our picture on the way into the cave.

The opening looks big, but this is the man made opening. Just through there was a much much smaller, much much tighter rocky entrance we had to squeeze through. Funny how I had forgotten that part and my parents failed to remind us.

Like I said some spots were extra tight and you had to squish in tight with your neighbors. Since David was seated in front of us with a couple he decided to lay back in Jesse lap and squish up with him instead. I told you... poor Jesse.

Did I mention that mom and dad talked us into going in, but decide they decided to set this one out?

Classic Vacation Photo Op!

Fountain Springs...

A long time ago my dad and his friend went fishing in northern Iowa and they asked an old local where the best place for fishing was and the man told them about... Fountain Springs. It's an actual state park, but it's so far off in the BOONIES that I'm surprised anyone could find it besides the people that live near it. The floods over the last few years have really washed out the roads, so at one point we had to stop and walk in and walk and walk and walk. It really was a beautiful little spot, though.

 Unfortunately Chels was the only one to snag a fish before the weather took a turn for the worse and we decided to call it a day.

The Hatchery...

We visited the DNR fish hatchery which I remember doing as a kid. There are so many fish being raised in this hatchery and they are so used to people coming to visit and feed them that they literally jump out of the water at the site of a person and beg you to feed them. When you enter the hatchery they give you a dixie cup full of some sort of fish food and the trout go wild for it.

It's hard to tell but all the chaos in the water are fish, hundreds and hundreds of fish, 

trying to get you to toss them food.

If you look closely the dark swarm in the water is a large group of 

the bigger trout at the hatchery.

Obviously you cannot fish in the hatchery, but just outside the hatchery they have a spot where you can fish. The fish are pretty abundant and David and no trouble catching any, but the rules are they have to be over 14" long or you throw them back.

Jesse didn't have as much luck, so once again I didn't get a picture of him with a fish.