Dec 12, 2010

The Chambers (Griswold) Family Christmas Tree

From the looks of my no-longer-clean car, and the caked on salt and sand on the trailer, can you imagine what the roads were like on Red Hill?
No big deal, just use a tarp, right?





Now, we are home with the tree and it's time to get it inside....

 Wow, it didn't look that big in the field!!!!!
Chop some from the top, some from the bottom...
 And we have a tree!


Oct 10, 2010

North South Lake the last chance

One last chance for camping before hunting season starts!

These pictures are from a bike ride around the lakes.  How cold must that water be?!?! 



  

On this trip, we tried an awesome pumpkin cobbler
and have a funny story about witnessing a fancy dance in the woods.

Sep 29, 2010

Newport International Boat Show

Yes, that's a 4am departure time!

 
Ron found his...

Amy found hers! Either this one...

 
or this one will do...  
 

  

There might be enough room for me to 
invite family on this one...
 
This Hyatt (center background) is PERFECTLY located.
As a former Hyatt employee, I highly recommend the brand.  
Location is out of the way, but an easy walk.  
They have their own parking garage!
 


On Day 2, we decided to visit:

This place is amazing, and we couldn't fit it all in.  These pictures do not do the ships justice!  It would take a good day & 1/2 to really look through every ship.
























Sep 12, 2010

Red Hill Fire Tower

This weekend brought predictions of rain on Sunday, so camping was ruled out.  Temperatures are low, and the sky is blue.  We decided to take a hike up to the Red Hill Fire Tower again.

See these links for background:
Red Hill Tower Site
Wikipedia Info





Before we arrived, we couldn't help but note that orange leaves have already fallen.





Let's go! 
This time, the tower is open and we can go all the way up.
Views from the top are amazing this time!  (Compare to the pictures below, which show our first visit!)  This is the bit of Red Hill that mom lives on, but her house is currently hidden by leaves.  We drove to her house later in the day and found that if you walk 10 feet to the left of the front porch, you can clearly see this fire tower in the distance.



Use the map to help you find your mountaintop.  Binoculars are also provided.

Also inside the tower are signs with key landmarks, towns, and mountains labeled.  
This shows the sign and corresponding photo.

 The fire tower cabin is also great.  The inside is full of historical information and pictures.  Volunteers do an excellent job at keeping the place beautiful and were very helpful with trail information. 


In April 2008 when we tried this, it was a bit colder with different views.
Consider the weather when you plan a hike like this because the elevation change makes a difference.
Yes, that's snow in the hole.
 You can kind of make out the scaffolding of the tower: