Deep Creek family vacation

It's been many years since we've taken a family vacation together, and the combined clusterfuckery of all our schedules makes it almost impossible to make it happen. However, Mom and the ol' man are comin' up on the 35th anniversary of their hitchin', and Mom decided that a family vacation to celebrate was in order. It took almost a year of plannin' and finaglin' our schedules around, but we managed to make it happen. 

When it came time to figure out where to go, the folks settled on Deep Creek Lake, situated in the somewhat-normal western part of the Communist State of Maryland. This is apparently where all the rich fucks from DC come to spend their weekends. The number of high-dollar cars, boats and houses in the area seem to confirm this.

That aside, it's been a purty relaxin' week. I've been convicted multiple times of bein' a party pooper, as I've been perfectly content to sit around and catch up on several month's worth of magazines instead of tryin' to find somethin' around the lake to do every second of the entire week. I've still managed to get in some quality time with the family and the girl along the way. With the crazy amount of water traffic, I've only felt compelled to hit the kayak once, although I did rip off about nine miles on that little jaunt. I left the leash phone at the house a lot, so I don't have a tremendous amount of pictures, but I'll share with ya what I did manage to take along the way.

Thursday, we checked out Swallow Falls State Park, only a few miles up the road from the lake. It was just a small mile loop through the woods, but there was plenty of neat stuff to gawk at. Muddy Creek Falls was definitely the centerpiece of the park. With a little proddin' from Jesse, us boys wound up crawlin' back behind the falls. Jesse's son Alex, who's nearin' the ripe ol' age of six, took a little convincin' to do it with us, but he was all grins once he got in under there with us. The soakin' we got in the process was definitely worth it, although I was bummed that we didn't have any kinda waterproof camera under there with us.

The top of Muddy Creek Falls. For some reason, nobody
else wanted to venture that close with me.

From the edge of Swallow Falls. Solo, again.

Muddy Creek Falls from the bottom.

The ol' man strikes his infamous pose.

Me and that purty gal of mine.

Momma takin' pictures of Swallow Falls.

Lookin' downstream from the top of Swallow Falls.

Joe and I took Alex out to the top
of Tolliver Falls, which was more
his size.

Friday, we surprised Alex with a trip on the the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad. He's always been into trains, and although it was an hour away from Deep Creek, we all tagged along to see his excitement. I'm told that I used to be big into trains too, so it was fun to see how excited he was. It was a nice little jaunt from Cumberland to Frostburg for lunch, then another fun ride back. I spent a bit of time in the vestibule, so I could lean out and enjoy the open air a good bit.

Nose to the glass.

Pourin' on the coal

The view from Depot Street in Frostburg.

Jesse and Uncle Joe, bein' careful to not wake the baby!

The back of the coal car.

Alex, hammin' it up for Uncle Bear's camera.

Never a bad time for "ba".

The rest of the week has purty much been a smatterin' of mealtime, naps and campfires. I'll be back to work on Tuesday, and I'll have to run waddle back to the mailroom and jump on the scale to see how much damage I did. Not lookin' forward to that.

Tools of the trade....

Campfire close-up (but not too close).

Bacon pancakes. Why, you ask? Why not?