Well, camping was great fun for all of us. I really enjoyed myself, and from what everyone else says, they did too.
The site we took was pretty big, but that's because their family sites can only have six people. Caryn said I was "too honest" because I mentioned Bob, who came a day late and made us seven. So we got a group site for $25 a night. There are six group sites, set up three on each side of the road. There was a group of kids in A, so we took our chances and picked site F, which was furthest away from them. We got there, looked around, and agreed that we had picked a good one. So we set everything up and went about being lazy and vacation-y.
Patrick had practically demanded something for food that he could stick on a fork and cook over the fire (God knows why) so we had sausages for dinner on Monday. And, as promised, I gave him a fork and some raw sausage and told him to have at it. He did, with much gusto. It was great fun to watch.
We brought along our friend Dan (he's got a wood axe over his shoulders, if you're wondering) and his girlfriend Lauren (taking it easy in the chair in front of him). They were fun to have with us, and had plenty of camping experience, which was nice since it was really only Patrick and I who had done much camping before. It was really, really cold that night, so we all kind of huddled up in our layers and laughed about how silly what we were wearing was. We teased Holly a lot for having her phone with her.

Tuesday we didn't do a whole lot. Caryn, Patrick, and I set out to pick up Bob in the afternoon, and we returned around 3. Dan had been chopping at a piece of wood that Caryn had brought with her, and we had a some fun utterly destroying it. I think I scared Patrick a bit with my chopping. He kept reminding me not to chop my feet off. For dinner we had ham and potatoes, with some pasta that Dan and Lauren had brought. Patrick peeled potatoes with me. We threw the peels in the fire. Actually, we threw a lot of things in the fire.
We teased Holly a lot more about the phone thing. It was a bit annoying to the rest of us. My phone stayed off almost the entire time, and the only reason it was on was because I had to wait for Bob to say when he got off work.
It wasn't as cold Tuesday night, but I think that that's because it wasn't as windy. Bob brought some D&D things, and we sat and had a short session in the tent with everyone. It was silly and fun. Then we broke up to go to sleep, and I made Patrick walk me to the outhouse because I heard things in the woods that didn't sound like a raccoon. He thinks it was a wild dog or a cayote. Caryn swears it's deer, but it didn't sound like them.

Wednesday was absolutely beautiful. We lounged around for breakfast while whoever went with whoever else to go bathe and we watched the fire die slowly as the regulation time got nearer. Around lunch time, everyone was back a the camp site and all paying attention, so I managed to herd them into various cars so that we could hit up Batsto while it was so gorgeous out.
Batsto was as beautiful as ever, and we had a very nice time walking around and poking various things with various other things. We also threw lots of stones into the Batsto river. River-lake. I'm not sure which it really is. I know there is a river, but it would seem to be a lake at the town. I could be wrong.
Dan and Lauren left us when we left Batsto, and we headed back to the camp site to cook some dinner. I didn't feel like cooking, so Patrick stepped up and foiled some chicken for sandwiches and set it on the grill over the fire pit. What a doll he is.
We burned the last of our wood and just about anything else we felt like burning at that point, because it was the last night and we really didn't need the firewood after that. We made s'mores and set lots of marshmallows on fire. I usually light them up for my mom, who likes the taste of burned sugar (EWWW!) but Patrick likes to pull off the outer burned husk and eat the gooeyness inside, so I burned a few for him instead.
We were nagging Holly about the phone a lot by now. I think it pissed her off, but it was really annoying to us, too.

This morning we took kind of a while to get going, even once we were awake. I, for one, didn't really want to have to come back to the real world where I have to go to work tomorrow and suffer through the drudgery of Pizza Hut. But we eventually started to pack everything up and get it all in the cars. The drive home was a bit morose, and putting everything away once we GOT home was still a bit depressing. Oh well. The whole point of a vacation is for it to end, so that when you get another one, you enjoy it twice as much. Oh well.

I'll finish up with a few more pictures and my usual quote. Have a wonderful end of the week, everyone! Enjoy your weekend.












"We are part of the earth, and it is part of us."
~Chief Seattle


"Going to the woods is like going home."
~Unknown