Summer 2013 - FAMILY REUNIONS BOTH HAPPY & SAD! - Part I

    The "biggy" trip of the year was to be the Deming/Austin/Bell reunion at Trinity Lake in Northern California.  Scheduled for July 21st thru July 27th.  All us Austins planned to go for months - except for Peter and Jill and Aly who already had arrangements in the works for Jill's Jensen family Reunion to take place at our cabin for the same week.  At the planning stages we all knew it would be too far for them to travel to California anyway, given the confines of Peter's employment at Mountain Home Youth Camp which required him to be in the wilderness during part of that same time.   (As it turned out, MHYC went out of business at the end of that week and informed Peter he no longer had a job!)

Of course Victor can stretch any one-week vacation into two....which he promptly planned.  We would go to California via Idaho and Oregon!  Go figure!  I guess he doesn't know that "the shortest distance between two points is a straight line."   Mostly he wanted to have an extra water experience.  Jim, Elaine & Kelly & David and family were going to take a second stab at the Hellgate Jetboat experience so we signed up to go too.

Therefore, we stopped first at Nathan's & Colleen's in Twin Falls with the excuse we could carry some things in our pick-up for them to lighten their load to Trinity Lake:

Grandpa and Grandma had a "date" with the girls to "Despicable Me 2" - a really funny animated movie.

When we got back to the house we watched Tara eat and eat until she had a "baby in her tummy".  Good thing she is so active!  (You'll appreciate her mother's laughter in the background here!)

Stocked up on things at my favorite store - Grocery Outlet - and bought a couple of T-shirts at Salvation army to have more camping choices.  The next day we left for Boise.  

Cute little Austin people stand on the porch to send us on our way. Gideon seemed to be asleep every time I was actually remembering to take photos!

Spent time with my step-mom, Mildred in Boise.  She will be 95 in November but still looks great and most days feels pretty well!   We were especially glad to get to take her to the recently re-opened Boise Temple - something I know she misses since she moved to the assisted living center.  They are good to her there.  Had her over to dinner at Steve and Nancy's both nights and got in a couple of games of canasta. 

July 19th we took off for the long drive across the [not overly lovely] southern Oregon desert.  Destination:  Grants Pass by nightfall.   Major problems marred the day.  We had been on the road for 1 1/2 hours already when I noticed a cell phone message from Nancy that we had left our laptop in Boise!!!   Horrors.  Can we live without our electronics????   Too far out to go back.  They agreed to mail it to Las Vegas.  Next we realized we had missed our turnoff to go the more southern route so ended up too far north in Bend, Oregon - only to have to turn South again from there to achieve our final destination.   At least we had a nice Mongolian BBQue lunch and a restful moment afterwards before continuing on our way.

This route gave us the choice though,  to drive through Crater Lake National Monument.  I'm glad we decided to do so.  It was amazingly beautiful!!  The last time I was here the day was not so clear and the waters not so blue.  We also had been to different look out points than the one's we stopped at this time where the island is much closer.

Checked into a motel at Grant's Pass, glad for the rest after nearly 11 hours on the road.  The next day we had time for Victor to take a long walk (pretty much getting to know ALL of Grant's Pass!) while I stopped at a garage sale or two & looked for someone to cut my hair.  Big mistake!  Major haircut malfunction!  I came away looking like a shorn bull dog!

By 3:30 we were at the Hellgate Jetboat Excursions office waiting for the Demings to arrive.  Was I nervous?  Yes.  But mostly because I was unsure about getting in and out of the boats with my current very arthritic-acting hip.  They all kept saying, "Sit in the middle Aunt Adele, you won't get wet and you'll feel more safe."  Yeah, right!!  The whole point of the excursion is to race forward at 60 mph then suddenly swerve or brake to a stop so that the entire boat is engulfed in a wall of water!!!  This photo (from their website) gives you an idea of how complacent people are until the water hits!   Totally drenched!    Totally fun!  

Hellgate Canyon is awesome as it narrows down.  You can see the spots on the movies "Rooster Cogburn" and Meryl Streep's "The River Runs Through It".   We purchased the dinner excursion choice, so the several boats stop at this huge building and everyone is lulled into a sense of security with a full barbecue meal & dessert.  Peaceful beautiful grounds!

The Limo ride up the hill which most people opt to use.  :-)

And then you return to the boats and the whole drenching experience starts all over again, with one boat crashing across another's wake and each trying to engulf the other!  Wish I had more pictures, but didn't dare take my camera.  Most of these are courtesy their website.

This is our soggy group - back on safe ground and by now, more than a little chilly!  Notice the light and dark of the hat and the soggy look to our shirts.

Left to right:  Victor and Adele, and the Demings: Jordan, Michael, Elaine (Victor's sister), Matthew, David  and Jim (Elaine's husband).   David's wife Kelley is taking the photo.