Every year members of our church, Grace URC, go up to Camp Wooten for a relaxing retreat. Camp Wooten is located along the Tucannon River in the Blue Mountains, near Pomeroy. The campground can accommodate about 200 people though we never max it out. My teen age kids went up for the whole weekend but my wife and I only went up for the day on Saturday.

There are a number of hiking trails through the forest and mountains. I hiked up the trail behind Donnie Lake to take some pictures of the camp and the lake. On Sunday some adventuresome folk scrambled up to ‘the cross’ which is over 1000 feet above the camp. Canoes are available for use on Donnie Lake and the kids loved paddling them around. Donnie Lake is also home to a large number of tiny frogs which the boys love to catch along with a few snakes. The 25′x50′ heated indoor swimming pool was also a big hit for the kids on Saturday afternoon.

The food is always great and part of the fun of Camp Wooten is that everyone gets to help. Whether it is in meal prep, serving, or washing the dishes afterward there are plenty of opportunities for everyone.

Each summer my company, Mid-Columbia Insurance, has a summer BBQ for the employees of our 4 offices. Employees are encouraged to bring their families, even parents are welcome. We rent the gazebo next to the Kennewick library because it has a water feature play area for the kids, lots of grass, and nowhere they can get into too much trouble. Once again this year we had a ‘bounce house’ set up for the kids. This is always a big hit.

Instead of cooking on a small camp grill as we have done in years past, this year we were smart and rented a grill and were able to get the meat cooked in a much more timely fashion. The grill was actually built into a trailer that can be towed and had two propane tanks attached. Since we had a nice grill, in addition to the standard hamburgers and hot dogs, this year we had steaks for the adults. These were a big hit and am sure we will do it again next year.

There was plenty of food! Everyone brought a side dish to share. Not only did we have the standards, potato salads, macaroni salads, chips, and desert, we even had shrimp ceviche! Num Nobody had an excuse for going home hungry and I don’t think anyone did. And there is always the watermelon contest later, just in case.

After the food it was time for games. First were the games for the kids. When the temperature is near 100 degrees, it is best to have games that involve water. We played ‘Drip, Drip, Dunk’ first. It is a variant of ‘Duck, Duck, Goose’ but instead of just tapping kids on the head the kids drip water on the the kids in the circle then pour the cup of water on the ‘goose’ who must then chase them around the circle. After all the kids had a chance to be both the ducker and goosee we had a ‘Sponge Relay Race’. The two oldest kids sat with buckets on their heads while the other kids race back and forth with a soaked sponge trying to fill the bucket.

For the adults, once again we played Bingo. We had 10 nice prizes. 10 games does take a while to play. Next year we might cut it back to 5.

The finale for the company picnic is always the kid’s watermelon eating contest. We broke them into two age groups and watched the kids demolish their pieces. I do not know where those kids put that watermelon but, except for green rind, red juice, and black seeds, they all gobbled it down quite quickly.

On my way over the Blue Bridge Thursday afternoon I noticed a bunch of bright colors down along the Columbia River where the hydroplanes stage for their races. I swung down into Columbia Park hoping I would be able to get into the pit area where just yesterday there were only big blue cranes.

Sure enough, I found some boats! Quite a few of the Hydroplanes were being cleaned and prepped for the race weekend. Starting tomorrow one would need a pit pass to get into this area and even then I don’t think they would let you get as close as I was able to do today.

click photos to enlarge

State Farm insurance agent, Chad Ward, had a Ribbon Cutting with the Tri-City Regional Chamber of Commerce this past Thursday. The office is located across the street from Olive Garden at 8390 W Gage Blvd, Ste 106, in Kennewick. Working with Chad are account representatives Nickolas Konen and Holly Veach. (Don’t tell Chad but they are the ones that do all the hard work.)

The ribbon cutting had a good turnout from the chamber as well as representatives from the State Farm District Office and Mayor Pro-Tem Sharon Brown read the Mayor’s proclamation making Chad’s office ‘Business of the Day’.

Ice Harbor Brewing is sponsoring the “All Black, All the Time” UL-929 Unlimited Light hydroplane for the 2010 Columbia Cup. The UL-929 is owned and driven by hometown driver Vince “X-Man” Xaudaro, a 1985 graduate of Kamiakin HS. We got to see the Miss Ice Harbor up close and personal when it made a showing at the Marina (and we had a great lunch while we were there).

This will be the first time the boat has been on the water since it was severely damaged in an accident three years ago in at Silver Thunder in Silverdale, WA. According to the UL-929 Racing website, “in the final heat the hydroplane launched off a roller in turn 2 of the first lap and literally stuffed the nose re-entering the water. Both sponsons disintegrated on contact and were ripped off the hull.” The website has some before and after pictures and it is pretty amazing to see the boat stripped down to the hull.

Also, check out the web site for a great story on why Vince chose the ’929′ in UL-929 as a tribute to his father.

Good Luck Vince! Nice to have a local boat we can cheer on.

click photos to enlarge

I saw a KVEW announcement that the vintage 1955 Miss Thriftway would be on display at the TV station from 5:30 to 7:00 am, during the local Good Morning Northwest (GMNW) program. That is a time of day I usually do not see but made a point of getting up and out the door early. I watched Kevin Uretsky interview Steve Compton, one of the boat owners during a couple of segments ( 1, 2, 3 ). GMNW co-anchor Crystal Costa and GMNW weather anchor Jason Valentine also shot a couple segments with the hydroplane as their backdrop.

I talked with members of the crew who were very friendly, explaining the history of the boat and the work that went into rebuilding the Miss Thriftway from scratch. The original Miss Thriftway was completely destroyed when it hit a wake at high speed in the 1957 Governor’s Cup on the Ohio River race at Madison, Ind. The Miss Thriftway web site tells the story of the boats rebirth.

But the best part of the day was when all the TV filming was done and I asked if I could have my picture taken sitting in the cockpit of this vintage machine. Made my day! Thanks KVEW and thanks to the crew of the Miss Thriftway!

click photos to enlarge

Blue cranes, blue bridge, and blue sky!

The hydroplanes are just starting to rumble into town on their big trailers but preparations are being made to get the river ready for the big boats. I stopped in at the Lampson Pit area to see the large cranes that will be hauling the boats in and out of the water. If you like blue, we got blue.

I have never paid admission to watch the Water Follies. We used to watch from up on Canal Drive but the city has improved the curbing and actively discourages the practice now. Friday is free admission (if you don’t count $5 to park or $1.25 to take the bus) and I may just have to drop in during the morning to see what I have been missing.

click thumbnails to enlarge

While I was out today I saw a plane practicing aerobatics for the airshow this weekend. Wishing I had a lens with more zoom, but with enough mega-pixels you can always crop. The plane streaming the ‘smoke’ is a high-performance Panzl S-330 from the Air National Guard’s Aerobatic Team. The other plane must be Bob Brawdy, the Tri-City Herald photographer, who got a lot of great shots.

click thumbnails to enlarge

The 45th Annual Tri-Cities Water Follies will be here this weekend. This means the hydroplanes will be showing up all over town. This evening I was out on Clover Island and noticed that the Oh Boy! Oberto was parked in the Clover Island Inn parking lot. These parking lot displays of the boats allow you to get close to the boats and I rarely get to go down to the park to watch the races so I must enjoy them dry docked on their trailers. Someday I will find someone who can get me down to the pits!

I pulled out my camera and tripod to take a few pictures in the dusky light. Well, forget the tripod, I have misplaced the shoe that attaches the camera to the tripod. Because of the low light and no tripod I had to hand hold the camera and shoot at 3200 ISO — so the photos are grainy but still look good on the computer screen.

This is definitely a word I have heard before though I am not sure I have ever used it. In the context of this book it sounded like a swear word, and I may start using it as such.