Miss Christina Powers: "[response to learning it's 102-degrees] Oh yeah? Sweating. Still."--Marilyn

Day three started off with a phone call at 10:00AM. It was my parents who had gone to Tai Chi at 7:00AM and were telling us they were only 30 minutes out at that point. We quickly woke everyone, including the boys who had still been awake at 5:30AM when my parents were up getting coffee starting the day. It didn't take long before the boys to be out again.

Once we were ready it was clear that loading the car was going to take much longer than we had anticipated. Perhaps the 30 minute warning was unnecessary. In the downtime, we let the boys sleep while the girls played some air hockey in the garage. The end score was 10-6 Alaina (master of the reach).

It was about 12:30 when we all were able to load into the car and begin the curvy-road drive up into the mountains. Girls in one car. Boys (and my mom) in the other. I was warned about a particular member of the trip getting carsick. It seems he/she used to get car sick A LOT. As it was though... no sickness at all. In fact, spoiler alert, on the way back I believe the two drivers were the only ones awake for the whole drive (at least I know I was awake the whole drive back).

We cruised up Hwy 49 past the North, Middle, and South Yuba River crossings before our first stop at Indian Valley Outpost. For those of you who have made this trip with with the Powers Family will know this spot well. In fact, I don't know that I have ever made the trip without stopping here for a dip in the water, ice cream, the bathroom or some combination of all three. This time we stopped for a picnic lunch of chow mein and fruit before taking a swim in the water across the road.

I was surprised at how quickly this group of kids took to the water. I mean, it is inevitable that everyone will love the water, but usually it takes some coaxing. As it turns out the 102-degree weather helped them to climb right in. In fact, they ALL felt comfortable enough to swim/wade over to the rocks in the middle of the river. This year has had a good amount of rainfall, so water-depths have increased a bit since previous years. I wasn't expecting everyone to make it across, but they did--see the proof:

It was hard to leave this area. We have some real fish in our group. But we were, after all, just heading to another swimming hole. It's just that this next one allowed for us to unpack the cars and take a nap in our hotel room as well. We said goodbye to Indian Valley Outpost just as the actual store was opening for the day.

The Riverside Inn in Downieville is a favorite for my mom. We stayed in Room One which is a two bedroom suite. While my dad began to unload the car (only after one load he decided to nap instead), everyone else headed down to the water.

It was there that a baby water snake was found. I had told the group that it was common to find water snakes in these waters, especially on a warm day like today. I also explained that they are harmless and the only snake they really had to worry about in the area is rattlesnakes.

Now, I assumed this information would just cause them to freak out a little less if they were to spot a snake in the water. However, these kids are either completely trusting of me or completely fearless of nature. Once I joined them at the water I was told Alaina picked it up and passed it around for everyone to hold. As you can see here Henrietta casually holds the baby snake as she also inflates an inner-tube. (All photos on this blog entry were taken by Marilyn because my camera went dead early into our outing)

For the record, if I was there, I would have prevented this from happening. Snakes do bite. All of them. It's just that the toxins these snakes carry isn't that harmful to humans. I really need to be more specific next time. Whoops. Rest assured there are no hospital pictures to follow. No blood was loss. In fact... the only thing we lost on our trip to Downieville occurred here at this swimming hole by the Riverside Inn. As I said before, the water was much higher than normal. And here, at this spot where two streams come together, the current was especially strong. Two of the floaties pictured here were lost to the rapid water.

Additionally, in an effort to save the floaties, Yago lost his left water shoe (Airwalks purchased the day before) and Henrietta lost her right thong-sandal (also purchased the day before). There was a switching around of shoes for the rest of the trip that left me in my hiking boots and my mom in her tai chi shoes, but it all worked out.

My dad slept with the dogs in our rooms while the rest of us walked out to the particular swimming hole that I probably spent the most amount of time in as a kid. Today, I'm not sure if it's my favorite but it is usually the least crowded. And it seems to have the most mass appeal of first time visitors with us to Downieville. Even my mom enjoys it. And she rarely gets in the water to chest-level.

At this swimming hole there are some rock formations across the river. They make for great jumping rocks. These are not the rocks *I* usually choose to jump off of because the water is not that deep here. But again, the increased rain made them a bit more enticing.

Henry was the first to see an opportunity to jump. Unfortunately he stood there thinking about it so long it got into his head. He asked his mom to take a picture of his jump and the next ten minutes went like this:

Henry: Ready Mom?

Marilyn: Yeah.

Henry: Okay. *deep breath* I'm gonna jump.

All: Okay.

Henry: So... are you ready Mom?

Marilyn: Yes.

Henry: One... Two... is it safe?

Christina: Yup. You'll be fine.

Henry: Okay. Ready for the picture, Mom?

Marilyn: Yes, I'm ready.

Henry: Okay... I'm gonna jump. On three. Are you ready?

(and so on...)

He did eventually jump. But then I had to one up him.

So he did that too...

And then Justin got in on the jumping-off-rocks action.

And Yago rode rapids in a tube... cautiously

But he enjoyed it too.

Henrietta played with water.

I continued to showboat by going off of the higher landings while others watched.

And then it was Alaina's turn to try to talk herself into jumping.

There was a lot of this...

and a lot of this...

and some of this,

which we're not sure was actually helping, Henry ;-)

And eventually she jumped!

This photo was shot at her surfacing.

Needless to say she went another dozen or so times shortly there after.

And enjoyed it each and every time.

Approximately three hours of swimming later, we walked back to the Riverside Inn. There, Marilyn made a salad. My parents took the dogs for a walk. The boys played basketball. The girls rinsed off and snacked on some fruit. And I proceeded to cook way too much food (10 hamburgers, 2 racks of ribs, and 12 pineapple sausages).

After dinner, I crashed. Hard. My mom did dishes. And somehow the bedding situation got all sorts of strangely configured. In the end two people were sharing a single air-mattress and the other one we brought went unused.

Our plan for the start of Day Four was to cook a full breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, and hashbrowns in the morning. However, with check-out at 11:00 and no one except my parents (who were content with the continental breakfast offered in the lobby) awake by 10:00, we just packed up all of the raw breakfast food back in the car. And then began our new day

Which looked a lot like the day before.

New swimming hole. More jumping.

And also floating and relaxing.

Did I mention jumping?

And some art.

And white water rapid tubing.

Break!!! We then ate pizza at the awesome pizza place in Downieville. Now this pizza place has been called Riverside Pizza and the Gallows and it has always had good pizza. But now it's called "Two Rivers Cafe" and I think it's trying to be fancy. They have a menu, for example. And you can't order at the counter anymore. Or pour your own soda. Or even pick your own table. Having said that, something was broken in their kitchen and all the tables inside were taken. So we ended up ordering pizza and sitting outside. As we always have for years and years now. The more things change the more they remain the same.

The swimming hole that morning was actually a bit intimidating with it's stronger current, so there was a request to return to the spot we were in yesterday. The area had less shade but it was more shallow and we had, after all, concurred that first rock-jump there, so we paid it another visit after we ate lunch.

This time Marilyn was convinced to go much deeper into the water. So much so that she actually crossed over to the jumping rocks.