Camping

My grandsons and I recently returned from an 8 day camping trip in the Adirondack Mountains on Lake George, NY. It has been my family's summer vacation spot since I was 10 years old. My parents found camping to be an ideal vacation for their family of eight children. To date, all of my brothers and sisters camp with their families. Some summers six siblings (with spouses and children in tow) can be found at Roger's Rock Campground on Lake George during the last week of July and the first week of August. We follow much of the tradition started by our Dad, who loved the mountains and lake. During the day we hike the trails, ride bikes, swim, fish, enjoy boat rides, waterski. In the evening, we build campfires, roast marshmallows, play cards, board games, sit and talk.

Boy, did we have fun this year! Reasons why?
1. My dear, dear, husband didn't join us and, although I missed him, I didn't miss the all the camping rules he enforces. I won't elaborate for the sake of space and time. This can cause stress.

2. My dear, dear daughter (the mother of the two grandsons) didn't join us either.
Laney has a difficult time keeping the woods clean. There is no electricity in the woods. She rakes the ground, sweeps out the tent and expects it to stay that way. We are surrounded by dirt and trees, in the midst of spiders, flying insects, birds, and small animals but she strives to maintain the campsite as though it was her living room. This can cause stress.

The kids know this about her, too. Here's an example -
John, Jeremy and I passed a campsite on the way from swimming which had a huge indoor-outdoor carpet spread out across the dirt, ending about three feet from the fireplace. Their picnic table was in the center of the carpet. When the boys saw it they said:
John: "My Mom would love that carpet. (laughing) If she had that, she would try to vacuum it."
Jeremy: "Yeh, and she would say, 'BOYS!, (imitating her stern voice) take your shoes off before you come on the campsite!'"

We were free! Bedtime was when we were too tired to stand up. Mealtimes were whenever we were hungry and snacks couldn't hold us. No showers (for the boys) although they did brush teeth at night. No rules! Except for the Candy Bus rules which were: shop the candy bus only once per day and only buy snacks, no toys.

Our tent wasn't the neatest, our campsite wasn't very neat, either. We did get to see the star studded sky one late evening. It was awesome! We took the boat to Prisioner's Island and caught mussels, which we had for dinner that evening. We built a sand mansion. I read a paragraph of the book I brought along. (Silly me!) We took long walks and bike rides. We went into the village and played games in the arcade. We had fried chicken in the Hot Biscuit, Ticonderoga's leading restaurant, and went to the Wind Chill for ice cream. We talked a lot, about a lot of things. We fished non-stop for two days (they all got away!) and Jeremy said this about fishing, "I want to do this for the rest of my life." John, the little workaholic, didn't talk about working all week. We savored every moment.

We had fun, fun, fun.