Bonus points to anyone who can identify the song lyrics in the title.
It’s been over a week since we had our family camping trip in Vermont, but I wanted to document the experience for myself and all my fans. (Hi Suzanne, Terri and Janet!)
This post is going to be mostly pictures, because I took approximately 100 of them during the weekend.
It was a humid and sunny Friday night when Kris and I set out on our journey northward.
I applied several filters to this image but was unable to make myself not look like a ghostly apparition.
We drove for many hours and had deep conversation about the meaning of life, or at least the meanings of the current things that are happening in our lives. We stopped at the Vermont Country Deli for dinner. It’s right off exit 2. We’re big fans.
After a few more hours, we arrived at beautiful Lake Champlain.
Sunset sky over Lake Champlain. Ah.
It was dark by the time we got to the campground, but we were able to get our tents set up quickly and then proceeded over to where the rest of our family had already gotten a fire going. We hung out for a bit but were soon sleepy and required some slumber.
Immediately upon lying down on the rocky ground, I regretted not bringing the foam mats that I usually have. Epic fail.
The next day dawned sunny and bright:
Good morning, Lake Champlain!
Some family members immediately embarked on a kayak trip to the little island pictured above. It’s two miles away. TWO MILES.
And they got caught in a thunderstorm. Everyone survived, don’t worry.
Innocently paddling away…
Meanwhile, back at the campsite:
They slept on an air mattress.
It had been 10 days since the biopsy, so it was time to remove my stitches. Kris volunteered to play doctor. I gazed out over the lake and tried not to visualize what was going on. Of course it was over in an instant, and it did not hurt at all, even though I screamed dramatically.
Kris finally gets revenge on his annoying big sister.
One of our family’s obsessions is doing puzzles. Ok, it’s mostly John and I who are obsessed, with Nick playing a supportive role, and Kris preferring to gaze out across the lake while holding a dish.
Ignoring the gorgeous weather and scenery to focus on the puzzle.
Oh hey, it’s the American Revolution.
Despite failing to actually get to the Rally for Ally this year, John and I were granted lovely green shirts and we sported them proudly.
I spent part of one afternoon relaxing and doing some much-needed sketching. Oh, and there’s my shy feet!
Later, I relaxed in the hammock. Shy feet again.
I built a little cairn. I like making them as precarious as possible.
I found some interesting driftwood as we waited for sunset.
We watched the sunset by the ferry crossing. Hey New York!
The final night it was down to me, Kris and Mom. After watching the sunset, we headed back to the campsite to make s’mores and hang out. As we sat there talking, I noticed a bright orange blaze in the sky. My first thought was that it was a fire, but it’s location didn’t make sense. Suddenly we realized it was the moon! It was peeking over the horizon like a ball of fire. I desperately tried to capture the beauty of it with my phone camera, but, if you’ve ever tried taking a picture of the moon, you know how that goes.
I begged my phone to take a decent picture of the moon but this was the best it could do.
We took turns looking at it through the binoculars. The mountain that was between us and the moon has wind turbines across the ridge. Through the binoculars you could see the turbines silhouetted against the moon. It was SO cool.
That night it was so windy that I kept waking up thinking it was torrential downpour. When I woke up in the morning I could hear the waves crashing against the shore. We packed up our stuff and had breakfast with Mom before setting out on our journey home.
The weekend away was definitely a nice break. I didn’t “unplug” as I had intended to, mostly because I was using my phone to take pictures the whole time. Even so, it was relaxing to be in the wilderness…
The Mazda’s first camping trip.
Ok, so it wasn’t really THAT wild, since we drove right up to the site, but once you get down to the lake, it’s very wild and unruly. And did I mention gorgeous?
Did you figure out the song lyrics?
Rusted Root, Back to the Earth.
