Monday, September 28, 2009

Went to Florida....

....Florida, Massachusetts. (Ha! The people of Florida, Mass. love that joke. They have pictures of palm trees up everywhere.)
We went camping this weekend at Savoy Mountain State Forest in Florida, Massachusetts with friends. We had a great time.
Our friends are experienced campers, and while this was not our first time sleeping out in a tent overnight, it was our first time really camping, where we'd be responsible for taking care of ourselves. So it was great to have friends who knew what they were doing -- and who had a trailer full of camping gear. We brought our tent and sleeping bags, plus food for half the meals, and they took care of the rest.
The kids had a half day of school on Friday, so we drove up that afternoon, and had the sites all set up by 6:00. We made dinner (hot dogs cooked over the fire). Friday was a cool night -- in the 40's -- but we stayed warm in our sleeping bags.
Saturday morning, we got up nice and early and had blueberry pancakes and suasages, and went for canoe rides on the pond. (That's Catherine in the middle seat of the canoe; Peter skipped rocks waiting for his turn while John caught newts.)










After that, we packed a lunch and took a hike to Tannery Falls, a beautiful waterfall in the state forest. We stayed there for a while, just enjoying the running water and the foliage that was starting to turn.
From there, we drove to Mount Greylock, a couple of towns over -- the highest point in Massachusetts. We came back, lit a fire and enjoyed some stew.
Saturday night was a little warmer, but it started to rain in the middle of the night. We expected it, and we were prepared for it. We had almost everything packed up Saturday night, so we were up nice and early Sunday, folded up the sleeping bags and tent, and headed home.
I think we did pretty well for our first time at "real" camping. We learned quite a bit, and I think we'll be able to handle it when we try it on our own sometime. The kids are all for the idea -- Friday night, as we settled into our sleeping bags, John said, "I don't know why we didn't do this years ago."

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