Camera Baptism and Family Fun Times

Last weekend, we went to my favorite getaway. Saturday morning we arose early and drove an hour into Highland county, VA, for their annual maple festival. It's a scattered festival, with various towns hosting activities and tours.

We started out visiting a trout farm. Our boys enjoyed watching the fish scramble and jump as we tossed food to them. (Side note: HotSauce is really into photography, so our camera is usually with him, and often I don't want it because it's too bulky to carry around while I chase the kids. So... he got me my very own super-slim digital camera!) Here's a picture I took with my brand-new (less than 1 week old) camera: Fuzzy-Wuzzy pointing to the fish...

That was before I tossed the last bit of fish food, and my brand-new camera into the water! (wrist strap just slid off). I was horrified! I quickly scooped my camera out of the water. Back in our van, I opened up the slot and took out the memory card and battery, both which had a few drips of water on them. We blasted the air from the vents and as I let the air blow into my camera, it continued to drip water from the other end. Oh how I prayed that my camera would still work!

We went on to have an all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast with real maple syrup before heading to Puffenbarger's sugar orchard. Right before we left the breakfast, HotSauce learned from another guest that the Puffenbarger's sugar house had suffered a fire just a week before. We went anyhow, and they had a little mobile unit set up where they were selling maple donuts and maple syrup. We got to see the tree taps and watch the lines running down the hill to the holding tanks. But all that was left of the boiling house was a fuel-oil tank, a broken concrete slab floor, and a few pieces of charred wood. We visited neighboring Reinhold's orchard to watch the maple syrup boiling process... they use wood-fired vats instead of oil. Here are some pictures from HotSauce's camera (which has never had a bath).

We briefly visited Monterey, which had many vendor tents with crafts and such. We didn't stay long because all our little boys wanted to do was go back to Grandma and Grandpa's house so they could play there (they had only had about 15 minutes play time Friday night and another 15 minutes that morning, and they were so excited to be at Grandma and Grandpa's house.)

After returning "home" I attempted to open my camera with the smallest screwdrivers available, but they just didn't quite work on all the screws. I just thought it would help it to dry out if I could open it up. But I set it outside anyway on the sunny porch, with the battery/card slots open.

The trout farm had gotten HotSauce really hungry for fish, so he and Grandpa took Fuzzy-Wuzzy fishing at a local stream. They didn't catch (or see) any fish, so then they took Squiggly-Wiggly to a stock pond and he caught his very first fish! Then it started to rain, so instead of catching the rest of our meal, they bought some frozen trout from the store there at the stock pond!

Sunday after church, we had fish for lunch. Grannycakes also made me an orange marmalade birthday cake... it was really good!

Afterwards the boys went outside to blow bubbles. I put the battery and card back into my camera and... voila! It worked! I had to reset the date and time, and that was just about it. So far I've had no troubles. Thank you Jesus! So here are some pictures I took after my camera's bath (Please do not bathe your camera at home!)