Day 2 of our camping trip. I'm fishing today, for the first time in a decade. It took some work to get my pole ready, but I remembered how to cast ok. One of my dad's friends in the campground gave me some flies and bubble floats and told me what to do, but I did not get so much as a bite. I switched to some salmon eggs, which the fish stole off the hook, but I still caught no fish. Luckily he gave us fish, so we at least did get to eat some fresh trout.

In the afternoon we visited Bishop's Castle. Its a large stone castle, with towers and turrets and balconies and bridges and stained glass windows, and even a fire breathing dragon. A guy named Jim Bishop is building it all by hand. He's doing it as a free attraction to show people what one guy is capable of, and to spite the government and its zoning laws and restrictions. He's not a big fan of the government.

Another of my dad's friends has a kayak, and she let me borrow it! I've only been kayaking a few times, but its tons of fun. I went out on the lake for a little while, and retrieved a bobber that some fisherman had lost (it was not the one that broke off of my line though, I didn't see that one). It was nice to look at all the views of the mountains around the lake.

We made Jiffy Pop over the fireplace, and Jon lost some more knuckle hair. But all in all, camping has been a complete success. We saw birds that I've never seen in the eastern US, and some deer came down to our meadow. We cooked over the campfire, and played cards after dark. The skies were full of thousands of stars. Camping is great.