Family, the Familiar, and a New Camera

Friday we pulled into Chatfield State Park in Littleton for a two-week stay. It is close to our son's house and a place we have stayed a number of times when we are near our old home. Eric's family bought a boat this summer and they have spent a lot of time on the water at Chatfield, especially during the record hot summer (70 days 90 or above by Sept. 4 and more since then, when the average is 33 days). Saturday, we spent several hours on the lake with Eric, his wife Liz, and our grandchildren Kylie and John.



Here they are preparing to launch the boat.



Kylie ran up to greet us.



Later, John wore his papa's hat. this was our favorite picture of him for the day.



Family time is the one thing we miss, living on the road. It is always good to come here and see them. Eric and Liz take care of our rented house and our mail. Grandchildren grow so fast and it is important to catch up with them every few months. We will see them several more times before we leave here.

During our first few hours here at Chatfield, we saw a coyote.



A little later, we saw these deer in the campground.



There were a number of Canada geese on the water Saturday, looking for a handout from our boat.



Last week, we ordered a new camera, a Canon PowerShot SX 40HS. We had seen pictures taken with this model during our trip and also read about it online. It was shipped to Eric's house and Sunday I was able to try it out on my walk. It has an incredible zoom and I captured this Cooper's Hawk (I think) in a tree.





I'm really pleased with it. My Canon digital SLR is much heavier and with the 300 mm zoom lens, it is hard work to carry around. This new camera has a 35X or 840 mm equivalent zoom and 12.1 megapixels, and is much smaller and lighter. It's great.