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Packed up and gassed up. Ready to hit the road
to the park.
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My '00
Cherokee proved to be pretty handy for packing and carrying tons of junk.
However, I was reluctant to pack any higher than this in the back. I didn't
want to get hit in the back of the head if I slammed on the brakes. I guess
it's time to fabricate a cargo area divider.
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It's only about a 45 minute drive from our house
to the park. When we got there, we parked the Jeeps while we registered. I
was happy to see that none of the stuff on the roof flew off.
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We got to our campsite and had our main tent set
up in no time. We had an excellent view!
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While we were setting up our camp, a fellow in
one of the nearby camps caught this gopher snake. The girls were pretty
amazed. They both took the chance to feel its scales.
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Here are the girls unpacking and getting set up.
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We set up my old two-man tent for the girls to
sleep in. Justine and I used a queen size air matress in the big tent. This is
a whole lot nicer than the camping I used to do when I was a kid!
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This was the view from the front of our tent.
Notice the hammock in the foreground. Not a bad site at all.
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Once we got the camp set up, we were ready for
some dinner. Justine donned the apron and got busy. Aspen talked her out of
the apron shortly thereafter.
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Ambrosia just looked too peaceful in that hammock
for Aspen to let it go unspoiled. She jumped on and started a tickle fight.
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Dinner by the lake. This was the first time any of
these beautiful ladies had ever eaten a campers' dinner.
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Meatballs, garlic and cheese biscuits and mashed
potatoes. Not a bad spread for "roughin' it!"
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The whole time we were eating dinner, we heard the
calls of the wild turkey and the peacocks that inhabit the area. At the end of
dinner, a peacock came out of this trees to give us a quick glimps. Unfortunately,
it didn't spread its tail feathers for us.
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Justine and Aspen took care of the camp while
Ambrosia cleaned the dishes.
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The view of the sunset over the mountains and lake
was amazing.
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We still had plenty of daylight after dinner, so
Ambrosia and I played some Frisbee.
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Twilight at our camp site.
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It was getting close to bedtime for Aspen, so I
got our evening snack ready. It's an Adams Family tradition: butterscotch
pudding.
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The night was clear and calm. Perfect camping
weather. We woke up the next morning to this beautiful sunrise. The weather
all weekend was gorgeous. In the 80s, clear and calm (by our campsite), and in
the high 50s at night.
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I started cranking out breakfast so we could get
our day going. We had pancakes and sausage. It looks as thought it's cold
because I'm wearing that big fleece pullover - but it really wasn't bad. I only
wore it for a few minutes before I had to peel it off.
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Pancakes by the lake.
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With breakfast out of the way, it was time to go
have fun. We put Justine's Jeep into
"fun mode" and left the grocery-getter at the camp.
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We parked at the marina and got ready to do some
fishing. The park was holding a free kids' fishing class. We really lucked out
- we didn't even know it was going on that weekend!
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Teaching a three-year-old how to cast a fishing
line is a challenge to say the least. She had fun learning, though!
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After sitting through wat seemed like a lifetime
of "classes," we were finally able to go down to the pier and do some
fishin'.
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Ambrosia pulled out this nice trout after about
half an hour of fishing. It was 9 7/16".
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The girls fishin'.
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About 5 minutes before we had to pack up and
move on, Aspen caught this nice trout. It was 10 1/4".
After this, we cleaned the fish and headed back to camp. We had a quick bite
of lunch and Aspen took a nap. When she woke up, we headed to the water slides.
We didn't get any pictures of the slides - for obvious reasons. We had a ton of
fun, though!
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After the water slides, we came back to camp for
some dinner. We grilled up the fish with some eggs and bread crumbs. They were
excellent! We also had baked beans, bratwurst and some baked potatoes that we
cooked all afternoon in our camp fire. They turned out perfect! After dinner,
it was time to roast some marshmallows!
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As much as she seemed to enjoy burning
marshmallows, Ambrosia didn't care to eat the burnt ones! It took her a while
to get the technique down, but she eventually got some tasty ones.
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Justine and Aspen grilled some marshmallows too.
Surprisingly, Aspen didn't really didn't like them - but Justine at half the bag!
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Ambrosia was a much happier camper after
mastering the art of the marshmallow roast!
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Once we all had a few marshmallows to get us
warmed up, it was time to crank out some s'mores. Delicious!
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By the end of the night, Aspen was a sticky,
crusty, filthy mess! She was worn out from a busy day. But she was very
happy.
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Right before bed, we spotted this deer near our
campsite.
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Since Aspen didn't sleep well the previous
night, she just slept with Justine and me the last night we were there. But
Ambrosia braved it out in the small tent by herself. In the morning, she came
into the big tent and we all snuggled up.
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We were greeted by another wonderful sunrise.
Again, the weather was perfect. I got out of bed and never even put on a shirt
- it was already in the low 70s.
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Cool photo of the sun coming up through the
trees.
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Justine made blueberry muffins, eggs with ham,
cheese and potatoes, and hot chocolate. Another great camp breakfast!
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You can see the rain fly off of our tent in
this picture. We actually slept with it off. The moon was almost full, so it
was quite bright out. But since the weather was so perfect, we wanted to be
able to see the stars. It was a gorgeous night!
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Aspen chased ladybugs while we broke camp.
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On our way out, we took some photos of the bird
nests on the restrooms.
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Before we left, we drove around to check out some
of the other campsites for future reservations. (We ultimately decided that we
lucked out and got a one of the best ones on our first trip!) On one of the
hills, we stopped and took this shot of the water slides.
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Since my Jeep had the back hatch opened almost
all the time, it didn't take long to drain the battery. It had a little bit of
juice left, but not enough to turn over. Five minutes of vampirism on Justine's
rig, and I was good to go.
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Ambrosia and Aspen did some final exploring while
my Jeep charged up.
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Before leaving, we grabbed some of the flowers
we'd picked. This was a great weekend.
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