We spent the weekend in the Poconos with our friends Craig, Tonya, and Aaron. Our big adventure was a 4-hour whitewater rafting trip on Saturday. We were a bit concerned about the weather, which was listing scattered thunderstorms all week. We were quite fortunate that the weather was perfect, a few clouds kept it from being unbearably hot and the thunderstorms stayed away.
We were also fortunate that they allowed all 7 of us to go in the same boat for they usually limit boats to 6 people. It wouldn't have been the same experience at all if we had to break up into two groups. Since I had done this trip last year, I was nominated as Captain and would shout my orders: "Hard left! Right Side row! All paddle!" My crew did a fabulous job and we had no mutiny from my loyal and hard-working crew. Tonya did donate her sunglasses to the river, but that was our only casualty.
We stayed at a lovely guest house called the Canal Side Guest House. It is a restored canal house on the Lehigh Canal and was built in 1820s. The owners, Rod and Jen, have done a remarkable job restoring this house. It obviously is a labor of love that they have dedicated themselves to and the work that they have done is mindboggling. Rod and Jen live in an adjoining apartment and are outstanding hosts and really neat people. They are both avid cyclists and they have created this house as an affordable way for outdoor adventurists and travelers. Rod even spent a year cycling the entire circumference of the United States and has a map detailing his route. They have also cycled in Iceland, Vietnam, and other places throughout the world. We really enjoyed hearing their tales about their adventures as well as the house. The house was decorated with many beautiful antiques, quilts, old sports memorabilia, and books. There was a comforting sense of nostalgia in the house especially with an Atari system with every imaginable game cartridge. I'm not quite sure who had more fun playing Space Invaders, Pong, Pitfall, Asteroids, Pac Man, Defender...me or the kids. We all got a good laugh at the quality of the graphics and sounds that seemed so cutting edge back then. The kids also got a lesson on vinyl records, for Rod and Jen had quite a collection along with a working turntable. Craig explained to the kids, "these are vinyl records. Sound is generated by a needle that goes around in grooves in the album." Megan even remarked when she found the switch to go from 33 1/3 to 45 rpm, "There's a fast forward button on it." Priceless. There was also a trampoline that the kids spent hours on. All in all, a very comfortable and relaxing place to stay with a lot of character at a very affordable rate.
On Sunday, after sleeping in and lazing around the Canal House, we packed up and headed to Jim Thorpe for the day. We did bypass the Redneck Festival that was going on right down the street, but got a laugh out of some of the activities listed in the paper (toilet races, Daisy Duke look-alike contest, armpit chorus band...) but didn't have great desire to investigate further. Jim Thorpe is a lovely town with quaint shops and a lot of walking (working our lower bodies after Saturday's upper body workout). We even had some fall foliage coming out, that we later found out to be Aspen trees. 
We did go to the old Jim Thorpe jail and took a tour--an eerie experience in a jail that only closed in 1995. Here we learned about the Irish coal workers, the Molly Maguires, who were accused (wrongly, it was later found) of killing the mine bosses and hanged in the gallows in the jail. It was a very interesting, although creepy tour. Megan learned what it would be like to be in jail and has since promised to be good!
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