Father's Day at the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon

Yes, it's a real place.  On Friday we headed north nearly 3 hours to Leonard Harrison State Park near the NY border, home of the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon.  We'd heard of it ages ago and were eager to check it out.  Father's Day camping!

While it may sound cheesy it's GORGEOUS.  Yep, deserves all caps.

There are 2 main hiking trails.  An overlook trail.

And a waterfall trail.  This one is steep, rocky, and takes you all the way down to the river at the bottom of the canyon.

Splish splash!

Saturday afternoon brought some showers which turned to full downpour around dinner time.  Some of us hid while brave Dad cooked goulash in the dutch oven.

Our tent kept us dry and we got up early Sunday morning to see if all the moisture brought any clouds to the canyon.  Breathtaking.  Doesn't God create some truly awesome stuff?!

The girls made Dad a Father's Day breakfast back at camp.

We came home to dry out a lot of wet gear, have gifts, and get a little time in the garage.

Two wings racked!  We'll be defying gravity in no time.

Happy Father's Day, Chris!  And Jerry and Don and Jim.  And to all the awesome dads we know.

AOPA Fly-In

We started the weekend with some motivation - pancakes! The 4 of us drove to Frederick, MD to the AOPA fly-in for pancakes provided by the local EAA chapter, and some gawking.

The girls got to hop in several of the planes, including a Cessna 172 (what I learned to fly in, though *ahem* considerably newer.

 EAA had their One Week Wonder on display, an experimental Zenith kit aircraft that volunteers built from crates to taxi in 1 week at Oshkosh 2014.

Even better, one of the EAA reps on hand was the same guy who helped Erin memorialize our quest to build a plane by digging up 2 posters from EAA 2012 (where it all began) and sending them to her, free of charge! Great people, these airplane nuts.

See the next picture? Someone caught the cameraman's eye...

...because the below popped up in the ~2 dozen promo photos of the event on AOPA's homepage.

 

Boppa clearly rubbed off on the girls, as both joined in symbolic political support of the Pilots' Bill of Rights 2, advocating breaking down bureaucratic barriers to recreational flight.

 And wouldn't you know it, even Elsa likes airplanes!

It was a fun morning, followed by a surprise visit from Natalie's best friend and her parents coming to swim & help on our plane, respectively (we're working on the wings).

Audrey said her favorites were the biplanes, while Natalie told everyone she liked fighter jets. Didn't see any there, but we're excited to see some this July when we head to WI and Oshkosh with family!

 

 

Natalie's Last Day of Kindergarten

As of this afternoon we have a first grader!  Man, kindergarten flew by... 

Her first day

Today, her last day

Audrey and I had a wonderful morning following her imagination.  There were lots of games, Angelina Ballerina books, and tiny characters.  She's wonderful and this year has been a special one for the two of us.

When Natalie arrived home she cried because school was over.  She loved every part of this year and we know the transition into summertime is bittersweet for her.  To kick it off we went bowling this afternoon, a favorite activity from last summer.  And we added friends!

Natalie and Audrey are upstairs now having a sleepover, another of their favs.  It's been a special day for all of us, even if a bit surreal!