Time for picnic

I wanted to do a picnic today as we had harvested some tomatoes. I wanted to make tomato rice and eating at home was not an option for me.

My tomato rice! The reason for the trip.

A little bit of research we found a great picnic spot at one of National Park’s Memorial sites. Johnston Flood National Memorial is the place a sudden flashflood killed nearly 2000 people in 1889.

I had no plans to go on a hike. I was lazy and tired. We had thunderstorms in the forecast yet we did walk a round trip mile to see the place a dam broke and caused the flood.

The place that was flooded and there was once a dam there!

A mysterious fishing club that built the dam

The visitor center then directed us to another Historical Site. This had been in my mind for sometime now. An incline built in 1834 carried boats to the canals. A very innovative way to transport boats instead of building tunnels and this went on for 20 years until rail transport became the norm between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Take a look at Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site https://www.nps.gov/alpo/index.htm

The tracks of the old incline that pulled up these boats.

A new assignment to type notes from these bill boards for my young man! He did it!

Our passport book’s mid atlantic section is getting filled up and just a few more spaces left. Have to move to other regions now. 🫢

Each site can have more than one stamp 🙂

These two sites are very close to Pittsburgh and we just needed to be patient and work through traffic and signals. But it was all worth it. The history we learnt and the scenery we saw will be etched in our memory. We have been to nine National Parks sites this year. There are more than 400. But who is counting 😄!