It's A Birthday...It's A Birthday!

We've lived in this area for nine years now. In all that time we've never been to the reservoir just up the river from town. After our trip to Finland when it was never warm enough or stopped raining long enough to take the kids to the beaches there, we decided we should make up for it and visit our local reservoir.

What's taken us so long? It's actually three separate areas, two of which are state parks. Above the dam is where all the boating happens. Below the dam is a man-made beach area where no motorized boats are allowed. Further down river is a more natural park area where dogs are allowed and kayakers and canoers can launch into the river.

We didn't know any of this, of course, because we'd never been before. We chose the area below the dam. They've built a large picnic area on a point of land with the water wrapping around it on three sides. Water is fed into the "lagoon" via a pipe that sprays a big cloud of spray about 50 fee in the air. I imagine it's nice to stand under it on a hot day.

We chose the beach around the back side where there weren't many people. In fact there were hardly any people there all morning, even though the other side was getting fairly busy. Not that we minded.

The kids had a great time splashing in the water, making sand castles, dredging out the moats made by previous visitors, wading after the minnows, and generally playing. It was an unusual experience for Terhi and I. The kids entertained themselves and left us mostly alone. We weren't prepared for it. We usually have to keep them entertained. We weren't prepared to entertain ourselves. Not a bad problem to have, though.

We wrapped it up around noon and had a picnic before heading back home. On the way back out we stopped at the ranger station to see about paying, as no one had been around when we arrived. It turns out we picked the state park system's birthday to come. Entrance was free for the day. Boy, what timing!

We did come away with some brochures. I've lived in this state all my life, but there's a lot I didn't know about our state park system. There's a lot of cool parks in the state. Since the summer is rapidly coming to a close we're going to visit another one this next weekend. It's even closer to our house in the opposite direction.

Either one is perfect. We can have a fun morning before it gets too hot or too busy, and still be home in time to get some things done around the house in the afternoon. What a country!