The Rappahannock River

Dear Familia,

Obviously, the main attraction at Pop Castle is the huge river right in the backyard. The Rappahannock River leads into the Chesapeak Bay and is pretty impressive. I knew that the kids were going to be amazed at the size of this thing since we are used to relatively tiny bodies of water like Salt River and Saguaro Lake. In fact, they kept calling Pop Castle the "lake house" because it seemed so big to them.

Jumping in on Day 1!

Although our first day was pretty cloudy, we ended up some amazingly sunny days! Regardless of rain or shine, we were down at the water every single day. We didn't do a lot of legitimate swimming because this was really their first extended experience in non-pool water. It's really weird to swim in water when you can't see the bottom. We managed to find some other fun activities though.

View on a sunny day :) 

Mud Fights 

One of the really fun things about the river is seeing all the different animals that make their home in river. We saw quite a few schools of small fish swimming around in the shallow AND we saw jellyfish! I was really worried about that, but Zane's friend Binns picked one up and it didn't do a thing to him.

Checking out the "wildlife"

We caught a few of the jellyfish to get a closeup view. Can you see them??

So ya, we loved the river. Next year we'll have to add kayaks to the list of activities. I'll have to get in shape first though!

Love,
Jem