Camping at Mount Blue State Park

I must admit that last week, I was not the "Happiest Camper", about the prospect of going Camping this weekend. We have been going and going without a break since the end of July and I was just plain tired. Don't get me wrong, I love being busy, but the thought of getting all packed up sounded awful... In the end.... I was proven wrong, and all my complaining was for no good reason, because we really had a great time, and the packing, and cleaning up after packing was worth it.

We drove down to Mount Blue State park, which is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. (The 2 hour drive is, however, not beautiful.) We camped with Family, and Friends of the family. They had a sweet set-up, which included an entire kitchen set up under a canope, complete with griddles, sink, and cookies. They cooked for us, and we ate better than Brad and I ever eat at home! I went to bed early, and had a great night sleep (I didn't even wake up until 7am, which I think is amazing considering we were camping). It was great.

and then we embarked on the hike...

2 miles up and 2 miles back, the part we didn't know is that it was about 10% slight incline, and about 90% straight up. Liv walked the first bit, and then alternated riding on different people's shoulders. Brad even took a turn carrying Liv on his shoulders, while back-packing Gwen as well! Oh, did I mention it was 90 degrees outside?? Needless to say, in the end we were all pooped!


Reaching the Summit was really neat. Just as we came over the last rock to reach the top, we saw that the entire top of the mountain was a big lake with an island in the middle. The lake cascaded over the edges to create waterfalls on all sides. I have never seen anything quite like it. The water up there was freezing, but it felt SO good! While up there, we sang to Gwen and gave her a bagel with a candle in it, swam, ate lunch, and bathed in the sun. Liv actually fell asleep while riding on Brad's shoulders on the way down. It was very sweet. Here are some more pictures.