2016 Season Begins

Opened the camp about a week ago but so far, we've been busy doing the usual requisite work and more involved in opening a summer camp.  Really have not had much time to do any lake activity but only had to content ourselves with memories of our road trip to Kayuta.

This summer is the 4^th season since we moved our primary residence to Nevada. The long drive to and from Kayuta Lake (41hr 10min, 2655.5mi. according to Mapquest) can get tiresome so we decided after our first trip to make it a point to visit parks and other interesting spots along the way,

Base jumper at Perrine Bridge

Shoshone Falls

Driving through Idaho, we watched the base jumpers off Perrine Bridge at Twin Falls and gazed at nearby Shoshone Falls.

Grand Geyser, Upper Geyser Basin

Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming was truly amazing not just for its varied geothermal attractions, geysers, hot springs, fumaroles, mudpots and terraces, but for its waterfalls and grand canyon as well as an abundance of wild life.

Grand Prismatic Spring, Midway Geyser Basin

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Travertine terraces at Mammoth Hot Springs

North Dakota not only offered roadside attractions like the largest Holstein cow (Salem Sue), the largest buffalo (Dakota Thunder), the wood chipper from the movie Fargo but also dabs of history about Lewis and Clark at the Keel Boat Park.

Salem Sue. New Salem, ND

Dakota Thunder. Jamestown, ND

wood chipper from Fargo

Replica of Lewis and Clark's keel boat

The Basilica of St. Mary's in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the first basilica built in the US, was an impressive structure with its granite walls, marble canopied altar and stained glass windows.  

Basilica of St. Mary's

Basilica of St. Mary's

We strolled around the Olbrich Botanical Garden in Madison WI which has the only Thai pavilion in the continental US and the only one outside Thailand that is surrounded by a garden. St. Joan of Arc Chapel at Marquette University in Milwaukee housed a piece of stone supposedly prayed on by the French saint.

Olbrich Botanical Garden's Thai Pavilion

St. Joan of Arc Chapel

We've stayed at a hotel in South Bend Indiana on most of our trips to Kayuta but we did not realize how close we were to the University of Notre Dame. This time, we finally decided to visit, particularly to see the most magnificent Basilica of the Sacred Heart.

Basilica of the Sacred Heart

Basilica of the Sacred Heart

USS COD

And in Cleveland, OH, we visited a submarine memorial and got a chance to go inside a real WWII submarine, the USS COD.

And now that we're in Kayuta, it's time to work on the usual chores of opening the camp. Time to shelve these memories and create new ones as have our fun on Kayuta Lake.