This 'n' That (or Maybe Just Rambling)

The weather here continues to be less than what I would call perfect. We've only had a handful of sunny days since we got here and most of those seemed to be on the cool to chilly side. It's gloomy and raining again today. Will Summer ever come?

While there was a little sun this morning, Julian and Heidi went fishing on the lake. Julian said all he caught were the little ones, but he did have a good time. And so did Heidi - and here's proof.


One thing we have both enjoyed tremendously is the proliferation of flowers here. OMG, it's been SO beautiful. We've enjoyed the tulips and the lilacs which were everywhere. Now the peonies and irises are blooming out. I haven't seen any of those flowers since we left Colorado seven years ago. The rhododendrons have come into full bloom over the past week or so. They are everywhere and totally gorgeous, as you can see.


Since living so far south for the past seven years, I'd forgotten how early the sun comes up in the northern areas. By 5:30 am the sun is streaming into our bedroom window and it's not even the peak of the summer season. It's still light out at 9 pm. It makes for long days - especially when it gets so cloudy during so much of the day!

The Pocono mountains are quite different from other mountain ranges we are familiar with. The Rockies, of course, are very rocky and full of evergreen trees and aspens. The Smokies (where we've stayed the last couple of summers) are not rocky, but are filled with very tall lodge pole pine forests. What we've seen so far of the Poconos is filled with deciduous trees and only a few evergreens. The trees here are so thick that you never seem to get to see that mountain vista that you do in other places. I think the best of the Poconos are south of here where we haven't had a chance to explore yet (crappy weather!).

This picture is on our walking route. This is a two lane road and it shows how tall the trees are.


We have been keeping up with our walking pretty well. I've pulled a groin muscle, probably from walking up these nasty hills around here. So I'm taking a break. Julian gets some of his exercise behind a lawn mower. He tries not to walk on days that he will be mowing and trimming.

Any of you who live(d) in Nebraska are familiar with the squared off road system. Even the dirt country roads are one mile square and run true north/south and east/west. Well, Pennsylvania just doesn't do anything like that. (I imagine the terrain has something to do with that, but it's still annoying.) I'm telling you, without our GPS in the car we would have been lost forever within a day of arriving here. We have finally figured out how to get to US6, but not how to navigate through Archbald to get to the main drag where we do our shopping. We did find our post office yesterday without GPS help. But we've been here nearly three weeks and that's the best I can say!

Along that same theme, we drove into downtown Scranton for the first time the other day. I swear, these people don't know where North is. The streets there are pretty much square but at 45 degrees off true north. Again, we're glad we have a GPS. The best part of that trip was finding a really good Thai restaurant (with the help of our boss's son). We'll be eating there again!

After our lunch, we drove out to Frances Slocum State Park, west of Scranton. It was very pretty out there, with lots of picnic tables throughout the park. We stopped at the lake and walked around for a bit, taking in the green. One of these guys caught a bluegill while we were there.


Lest you think we aren't earning our keep, one of our assignments is to keep up the marquee at the entrance of our campground. Julian snapped this picture the other day after we got it all set up for the weekend.


This is a similar view looking down into Clayton Park. You can get a sense of how hilly it is and how thick the trees are across the lake. The coach farthest to the right is ours.


I've been working in the store on the weekends. So far, there are few people here during the week. My first day was a bit rocky, but I've got four days under my belt and now I'm not making as many mistakes.

We bought ourselves a Wii before leaving home. We have TOTALLY enjoyed having it. We bowled 4 or 5 games yesterday and Julian was over 200 on all but one. He even pulled out a 230 on one game. My best so far is only 203, BUT yesterday I picked up a 7-10 split which is nearly impossible to do. So I feel REALLY good about that!

OK, I guess I really did get into a rambling mode here. But until we can start playing tourist (which requires better weather), I don't have much else to report than the day-to-day miscellanea. So help me pray for sunny, warm weather during the weekdays. Then you'll see more photos and get (hopefully) more interesting commentary.