The North Shore --- Part 2

A trip to the North Shore should include Split Rock Lighthouse. This is another one of those history things that is interesting to both adults and kids. They have period actors walking around telling stories about their life (based on an actual person), the foghorn works and so does the light. It is still turning even during the day but they don't light it. It is amazing because it turns by "winding" like grandfather clocks. It has 250 pound weights that hang from the light to several feet under the ground. The lighthouse keepers pull the weights back to the top every 90 minutes (that's how long it takes to make the distance from the top back to the bottom) and they did this when it was a working lighthouse all day and all night. They also cleaned those huge windows (inside and out) every morning because the lamp burned oil and it filmed the windows and you have to have clean windows in a lighthouse.

I was really surprised by how much Caelia adores lighthouses. She insisted on going to the top of the lighthouse 3 times. She generally doesn't show such strong preferences for things that she can't hold but she was captivated by it. She also wanted to walk the stairs all the way down to the shore. It is 137 feet down to the shore which translates into a whole bunch of stairs and a very sore back. She did okay all the way down but insisted that Randy carry her back up! I didn't go down there - I have been before and I knew that Lera and Masha would not be able to manage those stairs, so Randy, Caelia, Michael, Christopher and our friend Ron and his boys took that journey.

We had a picnic lunch and then headed for Gooseberry Falls. Gooseberry Falls is a wonderful place to splash in the water, climb and explore and it's free! We sort of overestimated how much energy Randy and I had left so we didn't stay as long as we have in previous years. Caelia was also tired and had a sit-down strike at the top of the falls necessitating Momma carrying her down to meet Daddy and her sisters at the lower falls.

A bit about Down Syndrome Slump, Drop and Flop, Sit Down Strikes or whatever you choose to call that lovely bit of non-compliance that appears when a child with Down syndrome decides that she is not going to do what she has been asked, or is expected of her. This is an amazing thing to behold. 1960's civil rights activists would be envious. Caelia doesn't fight you but she won't budge, she won't walk and coaxing and cajoling do not work. She is simply on strike until she chooses to get up. When Masha does this, we pick her up and move on. It's not pretty but it works, even works on Lera but Caelia? Caelia is getting to be an unmanageable size for me, so if anyone has a plan to get her moving, let me hear it! Oh - and keep in mind...she doesn't give a rip what anyone thinks about her behavior, you can't walk away (she won't follow --- she will run in the opposite direction as quick as she can) and "do I need to get Daddy?" doesn't work either.

The water is chilly but not too bad and the rocks can get kind of slick but it really is a lot of fun and it was warm enough that the cool water felt great.








Masha will be getting her first haircut soon. We tried pulling it into pig tails but her hair is really fine and she pulls them out quickly so she looks a little wild child all the time...especially in this photo!