The camping trip was part of our (Matt and I) wedding gift to Jill and Felix. We planned this all inclusive camping trip and prohibited Mattie (Jill’s dog) from coming with us I went camping with Jill and Mattie once before and it was not a very pleasant evening. He woke us up at 5am by running around in the tent and when Jill put him outside, he proceeded to back away from the tent as far as his leash would take him and run full force into the tent until we let him back in. Needless to say, I think Jill and Felix were able to relax and enjoy this camping trip a bit more than their last one

Saturday May 26th

The next day we went for a hike in the morning, we climb up to the summit of nearby Mt Goodnow and enjoyed beautiful scenery from the top of the scarily “see-through” fire tower. Once again the only annoyance were bugs… lots of them!!! We got back to the car and drove back to the camp for a well deserved meal.

The afternoon we rented a canoe from the campground and paddled around the lake, getting some sun. After canoing we laid down on “our own private beach” for a while and decided to try to go get some wine for dinner. We didn’t know what an expedition it would be…

We asked the folks that manage the campground where the closest grocery store and liquor store were, and it happened that the closest grocery store was in the nearest town… 15 miles away!!! As for the liquor store, nobody really knew and they told us to ask at the grocery store. One guy at the grocery store told us that there was a store selling wine a few more miles further. That place had 3 stores in one building, but with 3 separate doors. One for the general store, one for the laundromat and one for the liquor store. The owner grabbed the key of the liquor store door and opened it for us. The store was more or less a long corridor with about 50 bottles of wine and liquor disposed on a shelf. We picked two wines, a Chardonnay and a Riesling. When we opened them later we realized the Chardonnay was more of a vinegar than a wine… which left us with “only” one bottle .

The evening’s highlight was probably the grilled ham and potatoes dinner with Lindt chocolate stuffed bananas for dessert.

Sunday May 27th

Unfortunately we got awaken by the sound of the rain on the tent. Although it is a very pleasant sound, rain sucks when it comes to camping… So we decided to try to find some “covered” activities to do that day. We spent our morning exploring the natural stone bridge and cave in Pottersville. This was a fascinating place, with some interesting rocks and a nice waterfall.

Then after a good lunch at a local bakery we headed north to Tupper Lake where we visited the wild center. This visit was a little disappointing, beside a couple of funny otters, a few trouts and a few frogs there was not much to see in this place. But that was god enough for our rainy day.

Monday May 28th

We packed up all the semi-wet stuff in the morning and decided to head home as the weather still wasn’t great. We drove all the way to Albany and then change our route to go through southern Vermont and stop in Gardner MA at Kristy’s parents before heading home. The weather cleared up a little and the scenic drive was very pleasant. We were afraid to hit some traffic when approaching Boston but we didn’t see anyone on the road… my guess is that everybody went to the beach and that’s were the traffic was .

So we ended up being home quite early and after unpacking most of our stuff we decided to treat ourselves after this harsh weekend by going to the movie to see Shrek the third and getting dinner at Rock Bottom before starting another week of work.