July 13: Digging for Diamonds

We slept in and then had breakfast in the lodge, which consisted of huge portions of delicious food.  It was lots of fun staying in the same place with all the extended family as we got to see a lot of everyone.

Grandma, Great Uncle Bob, and Mack looking at family
history.

After breakfast, most of the family had set up in one of the conference rooms.  My dad's cousin Cathy is really into family history and genealogy and brought in lots of old family books and heirlooms to share.  We stopped in to visit for a little while, but sitting and looking at "old stuff" wasn't really something our crew was interested in.

Map showing where diamonds
have been found in the crater.

We decided to head to Crater of Diamonds for the day to see if we could find our fortune.  (Just a few weeks before, someone had found an 8.5 carat diamond, so we were hopeful!) After the fun we'd had crystal digging, we were looking forward to more fun.

We didn't realize how many people would be at the park.  The parking lot was already busy when we got there, and it was super hot.  But we decided to give it a try.

The first problem we encountered was the sun.  There was no shade anywhere in the crater and it was hot.  So everyone got tired and unhappy pretty quickly. The second issue was that they hadn't turned over the dirt for awhile and it was dry and packed hard.  We persevered for about an hour, trying to find something other than dirt, then decided it was a lost cause and headed out.  All of us agreed that it wasn't a place we need to visit again!

Crater of diamonds.

When we got back to the lodge, we were all tired and hot. We took the afternoon to relax in the room in the air conditioning.

That night was the main dinner for the family reunion. We had a great meal and visited with our extended family, most of whom I hadn't seen in years.

It was especially fun to watch the kids get to know my grandmother and aunts and uncles.  As the only kids, they felt a little left out some of the time, but it was great to have them meet all the relatives.

After dinner, we went for a long swim.  Everyone knew vacation was drawing to an end and wanted to get the most out of it possible!