Fishing

Abi, Lily, and Corey all went down to the valley today. We've had two cars commuting twice a day 3 out of 4 days this week, feeling like we live in LA or something. Abi went to do some Visa stuff for her mission and then she had work until 7:30. Lily had an SBO thing so she went down with Abi this morning, then Corey went down to do work and he picked her up. I watched ODPK go swimming and when they were done I colored with Katharine. The boys played some video games, I came back to the room for a bit and let Sophi and Natalie stay with the kids in the Silver station. Good news from me is that I had enough time blogging to finish May today! I'm all the way caught up until just this past week! Wow! So that was super exciting and I'm pleased with myself and my effort to record our family history. Corey and Lily got back in time for Lily to take the girls to go to the outlets and Corey took the kids fishing in Deer Valley. I was there with them for like an hour, took two strolls around the pond, then I decided to go on a walk back to the room. I left right before Daniel got his first catch! 

He felt very proud. Good job Daniel! What's your secret??

The secret was getting help from Miguel, a fellow fishman there who caught a fish right away when we'd been there for 45 min with no bites. He was doing some fishing talk with Corey (teal shirt below).

Katharine was so cute casting her line. 

She didn't catch anything but enjoyed playing the game. After Daniel's catch, then Owen caught a fish (Corey killed it). Sorry the pic only pic with Owen didn't have his face.

When the girls were back from shopping they wanted to give it a try. Natalie caught one! 

She was freaking out and grossed out by it, but also excited. Then Lily...

and Natalie again...

Finally Peter got a fish! 

Corey was glad with that final catch and was ready to wrap things up as the sun had gone down. So again I had left before they started catching fish. I decided to walk back to the hotel. And as I walked I was thinking about the Judge Mine and if I had enough daylight to make it there, and maybe if someone could pick me up. Yes, they probably can, and Google maps says it's a 40 min walk, I have time to make it before sundown. Then I turned left on Main street instead of going to the room. I'm going to find the Judge Mine. I had spent sometime today doing a little family history research on my grandpa Julian who used to live up here in Park City in the 1940s. I googled his name and "Park City" and found this old Salt Lake Tribune article from June 29 1947. On page 46 it mentions my grandpa AND that he worked at the Judge Mine. I followed Google's directions. When I still had 20 minutes left, Abi called to see what everyone was doing. She was back and came to my location to give me a ride home, but I hadn't found the Judge building yet! I told her I'd be "right" back, it was just .5 miles and I'd hurry. She waited for a minute and then drove back to the room instead of waiting. But then 5 min later she called cause she didn't have a room key, so she'd be on her way back to me and would wait at the Daly trailhead gate for me. Then I found the Judge Mine office building! 

There were "no trespassing" signs, but I went up two steps and touched the wall, thinking it was cool my young grandpa walked up those steps and through that door. 

And that was all I did. I was glad to find it! I want to go to the Park City Museum this summer and learn more about the mines and see if I can find anything on my grandparents. On the walk down, I saw these logs sticking out of the mountainside that I didn't notice on my hike up, probably from an old cartway or mine shaft thing to dump the rocks? 

It was super cool. So one other thing - on the walk up, there's one part where the road does like an S curve, and you can turn to get back on Daly Avenue or take a road that goes over the ridge to connect to the Ontario Mine. On my hike up, I was able to skip it and just hike up this little hill to where the road continued. But on the hike back down, I was on the road and didn't notice the hike spot until I was far enough past it that it made more sense to just continue and walk the S curve, so I did. But I would have taken the shortcut if I had noticed it. Looking back now I see that as a tender blessing, cause it gave me probably another minute of time to my walk, which was important because as I was almost to the car, a big brown animal came rushing down the west side of the Ontario Ridge and then crossed the path in front of me and hurried up a dirt maintenance road. And I've seen moose many times up here, so I first thought it was a moose, cause it's body was about the size of a moose, but this animal did not have long legs, nor did it have antlers. It had short fat legs, and a big giggly body. It was a bear. It looked like a grizzly bear to me. A big brown bear. I've been reading that there are "black" bears in Utah that are brown, so maybe it was a black bear, but it was a bear. And after I got back to the car I asked Abi if she saw it. She didn't (might have been on her phone) but she heard something running through the trees breaking branches and stuff. If I had not taken that extra distance on my hike back down, I would have been there on the trail where he came down. !!! I don't know if bears that are in a hurry pause and eat when they see something available to snack on, like a hiker, but I am so grateful I was not there in his way when he crossed the trail!!! Nice to feel like God's looking out for me.