Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Day One- Welcome to HELL!!

The Logophile family set off early in the morning, the weather was warm and the breeze was gentle. It was idyllic, really. We stopped at a cute little diner for breakfast before heading to the mountains. The twisty mountain roads were clear and traffic wasn't a real problem, it was a lovely start to the family vacation.
Then we crested the pass and began our descent into eastern WA (ok, ok, CENTRAL WA, if you want to be picky about it, whatever). The air began to be warmer, and warmer, and warmer, and ok, it was freaking HOT, the wind was hot, the sun was hot, the Things and I began to think to lose our will to live.
It got hotter.
By the time we got to Winthrop, it was well over 100 degrees.
At Winthrop though, a light shone from heaven, the voices of angels were heard, and this, this rapturous piece of equipment came into my knowledge and then immediately into my possession.

This my friends, is a personal mister. Fill it with water, pump the bottom and a fine mist of cool water can be gently sprayed across your superheated, nearly volcanically hot skin, suddenly restoring the will to live.
After the discovery of this marvel of modern life we felt we could manage one more stop before pushing on to our stop for the day (with a POOOOOOOL!!)
We went to a fish hatchery.

After seeing the baby fish we went out to the pond where you can throw kibbles to the big guys.


Some of them are pretty impressively large and agressive. One of the guys also unlocked the entrance to the salmon area so we got to see them as well. It was very awesome.

We also got to see some beavers who were hanging out there as part of a pilot program which removed beavers from areas where they are considered a nuisance and moves them upstream to areas that benefit from dam activity, to preserve wetlands and such.

We were there while the biologists from the dept. of wildlife came through to give the beavers some fresh aspen to gnaw. They let Thing One help a little.


All in all it was a good stop, thank you personal mister, for making it possible!

When we stopped at Twisp for gas it was 110 degrees and I was officially in my own personal version of hell.

After arriving at our hotel I draped myself across the air conditioner until frostbitten and then took the Things to the pool for a couple hours.

We decided at the last minute to bring the laptop, so between the constant internet connection and my personal mister, I may somehow pull through this trip. :p

Drama much?

9 comments:

Doug The Una said...

Rabbit rabbit.

Nice work getting through that post without dirty jokes.

furiousBall said...

that is one impressive beaver

S said...

I like having a few personal Misters around for cooling off.

HEH!

That sounds like it sucked alot.
Glad you are back.

Breazy said...

That is what I needed when we took a little trip a couple of years ago.

Hope you all have lots of fun!

Unknown said...

I've come across a lot of blogs today where people show photos of wildlife they came across. I don't think quickly enough to get a camera out for such things. So you'll just have to take my word about the yeti I saw the other day on my bike ride along the Mississippi.

Anonymous said...

When I was in eastern WA a few weeks ago, it was freezing! I guess they finally decided to have summer in full force to make up for it.

TLP said...

I personally love the cold weather. Temps like 110 make me pray for death. Then I remember, that if there is something to pray to, he's sending me to hell when I die. Bummer.

Sweet post. Congrats on passing up on the beaver jokes. Are the things aware of beaver jokes yet?

Fred said...

I was thinking the same thing as Doug and TLP. Congrats on passing on the cheap jokes.

The girls used to love these kind of trips, but now it's all about their hair and boys.

Sigh.

Joe Jubinville said...

...to go with your mister. Guaranteed relief (depending on beverage) up to 120 degrees.