Day 1000: Allegheny and Kinzua

So happy!  1000 days of writing!

Memories are strange things.  Over time, they are enhanced by the feelings we associated with the original events and places. Like Kinzua.  Twenty years ago, it was a special place for our family.  When the boys were young, we often took them to Jake's Rocks to climb all over the boulders, peer at the dam from high atop the lookout and explore the woods. They were such happy times and we thought revisiting this place would be fun.  It wasn't.  The scenery was lovely.  Oaks, pin oaks and maples covered the hilltop, but the rocks were insignificant, small and empty.  We couldn't escape fast enough.

Allegheny, on the other hand, was wonderful.  Although our focus was on walking and photographing the wondrous autumn colors, we enjoyed reminiscing about our adventures in the park.  Wandering through the lodge, we remembered when Colin was four years old and entertained the entire audience for a program by dancing to the music of Nan Hoffman.   Another time, we went on a guided walk with a ranger who was to teach us about beaver.  Colin asked so many sophisticated questions about the beavers' habits, that people kept saying to us, "He's an amazing child!"

One of our favorite activities at night was to gather around the campfire to toast marshmallows for s'mores.  We could hear scuffling in the woods nearby and see movement in the firelight.  Suddenly a raccoon approached the fire and reached into the fire pit to grab a marshmallow that had fallen on the circle of rocks.  The boys screeched, but it had seized its prize!

On the way to Allegheny, we always kept a "chuckie" count.  Instead of license plates, the boys were always on the lookout for woodchucks!  We also remembered the times we fished in the lake using kernels of corn as bait cause no one wanted to stab the worms.

Finally, we walked through a picnic area and recalled when Justin and his former fiancee', Heidi, joined us for a picnic in October, in the pouring rain.  We cooked hotdogs on a brazier under umbrellas.

Each summer for years, we camped at Allegheny for a few days and took the boys swimming at Red House beach.  While we watched the kids play in the water, the lifeguards would shout at weak swimmers, "You must do the crawl out to the dock or come back into chest deep water." That motivated me to become a stronger swimmer, so I could swim all the way out to the dock without stopping.  The first time I did it, I rejoiced!