Amongst our crowd of friends we have a couple with a daughter who is about 24 months old and another from another couple who is 30 months in age. Think about that — we’re talking about the potential for a really funny pic or video of 5 little girls, all about 6 months apart, scattered at 6 month intervals from 6 months through 2 and 1/2 years old. I suspect getting them all to sit still, with the addition of two more to the crowd, would be exponentially more difficult than what goes on in this video.

Here’s Lucy with Victoria, getting some lessons in how to play with dolls.

Here’s Lucy with the grandmother of the family.

Part of Victoria’s education involves the vigorous study of music and playing the piano. Lucy gets to sit in on lessons.

The Moravian Tileworks was this odd sort of place that my friends and I who had a band always fancied we’d use some day as the backdrop for a really cool album cover, in the tradition of Led Zeppelin.

Thus, I present to you a day at the Moravian Tileworks, accompanied by Led Zeppelin’s “Out on the Tiles.”

The band broke up before we got around to a second photo session, so you’ll just have to settle for the abandoned railroad tracks photo session.

Check out this photo. Just imagine all of the people gone, and imagine the above five lads spaced out randomly on the hail bales (or throughout the frame?) all looking in different directions. Totally cool, right?

East Broad Top Narrow Gauge Steam Locomotive #15

After the train passed through, we stood and waited for the whistle to echo through the valley. Amongst the late summer grass and wildflowers we held our breath in silence as the train lumbered through. And then it came, loudly at first, then it repeated and faded off into the distance, slowly drowned out by distance and crickets and wind. And then it was just gone. RT was the most animated I had ever seen him. I thought to myself, this is a guy who knows his bliss; this is a guy who can die happy. I reckon he most likely did.

I met my friend K at the John Heinz Wildlife Refuge at 11am. I hooked the air pump to the car’s 12 volt charger and inflated the boat’s 3 distinct, physically isolated bladders. We had the boat in Darby Creek in pretty much no time, which isn’t too bad considering today was the first time I actually put the whole thing together. We cruised around, took some pics, threw some lures in the water, and generally enjoyed nature as much as two fellows could under blazing sun and near 100°F temperatures. My electric trolling motor attached perfectly to the motor mount kit and even the heavy marine batter was easily tucked under under my arm while I navigated up and down the creek. The ride was pretty comfortable, especially considering the whole thing is essentially a huge pillow. The sturdy vinyl material effortlessly made its way up and down the creek with the help of my Minn Kota electric motor. The boat easily could handle 2-3 adults plus 1-2 (< age 10) kids, or about 1,000 lbs of people, however you decide to do it. I'm not exactly eager to ram it into rocks in turbulent water, but as far as something to cruise around on little creeks and ponds and lakes, I'm totally happy with this boat.

As far as time and effort is concerned, I got what I wanted to out of this boat. I took it out of the car at 11am. We were able to inflate it and get everything together without even looking at the manual in no time. We then spent plenty of time on the water, came back, deflated it with the same device that inflated it, and wrapped up our trip by 2:30pm. Not bad — 3.5 hours from the time I took it out of the car til I put it back. Like I sort of indicated — its a heck of a lot easier for me to get out on a river or lake for 4 hours than it is to do so for 12 or 15 hours.

My friend and I used today as an experimental test run before taking it up to the Delaware River Water Gap in August for a fishing trip on the river and camping trip on one of the islands. No doubt, the test was successful. This is a great boat, and today was a great day on the water.

The creek is dammed up to produce Lake Nockamixon. The flow from the dam procedes through north eastern Bucks County before emptying into the Delaware River. But, just a few miles west of that confluence, lies a gem of a park. The creek forms a gorge and warm water fishery that Ralph Stover State Park encompasses.

The park provides opportunities for rock climbing, fishing, and picnicing. There are a number of trails, including a path to a vista with excellent views of the gorge that are, rather surprisingly, accessible even with a baby stroller. All in all, this was a good time.

Slideshow of all photos.