We took off for the weekend......

One of the best things about living in New England is that a great camping trip is never far away.

This past weekend, we took off across Lake Champlain and into the Adirondack Mountains of New York. We found a really great campground along the Ausable River.

Now, if you know us well enough, you know that we're not big fans of camping in RV parks or over-run campgrounds. When we want to get away, we want to get away from EVERYTHING.

Last month, we went to a fantastic state park in New York and LOVED the campsite we stayed in. We had to pack up a canoe with all of our stuff, then paddle a mile and a half across the pond to our campsite. There was NO ONE ELSE around. Just the way we wanted it.

This past weekend, we wanted to go to the same state park and campsite, but it was already booked. I searched online for another campground in the nearby vicinity and found one that had a "wilderness camping area." It look intriguing so we booked a couple nights there.

It wasn't AS "wilderness" as we would have liked, but it's definitely one of the better campgrounds we've stayed at. We had a little bit more room to ourselves in the "wilderness area" and the river was right below our camp site. There was a bit of a steep bank to climb down, but it was worth it. The kids got to go swimming, Zach got to catch fish and frogs in his net, Girly got to go exploring, I got to sit on the river bank and read my magazines (I even went for a dip in the river the first night because it was SO hot and humid out) and Davy took his kayak out for a long paddle. Girly really enjoyed swimming across the river with her life jacket on.....almost a month ago, she found out that we weren't kidding when we told her that her life jacket would help her float. Now she has no qualms about swimming in deep water if she has her life jacket on.

Zach is always happy to just be outside and catch whatever moves. The river has lots of fish in it, and the small ones were gathered near the shore. Perfect for Zach. He caught SO many of them! He was putting them in water bottles, keeping them for a while to watch them and then releasing them back into the river.

We stayed for 2 nights, roasted marshmallows over the fire, let the kids play in the pool (here they had this BIG river to play in but they wanted to try the pool out), took part in a campground-wide hayride and then let the kids partake in a treasure hunt.

I realized how much we've become like my parents.....driving around and taking in the scenery, while the kids were in the back asking when we were going to go back to the campground. How well I remember doing that as a kid. Those weekend drives seemed to take SO long. I wanted to be out of the car and playing outside. The kids handled it well, though.

My daughter is quite the ham and is very rarely ladylike or clean when she eats. I made a batch of banana chocolate chip muffins before we left for our camping trip (because I didn't want to waste the already over-ripe bananas). I figured they would be a good snack to take along and my kids LOVE them. It is SO hard to keep this child clean, but how can you be mad an adorable face like this?

On our way home yesterday, we took a side trip to something we've heard about but have never seen: Ausable Chasm.

What a beautiful sight! We weren't able to go onto the vast network of trails and explore too much, but just going over the bridge and peering down into the chasm and looking at Rainbow Falls was an amazing sight! The trails take you into the chasm for about 4 miles of hiking. We didn't plan on the cost (which is a little high, in my opinion...it would have cost us $48 to get in as a family) and we didn't plan on the time to take a 4 mile hike, but eventually, I would like to go back, simply because I hear that it's absolutely gorgeous and you don't quite get the full effect unless you've seen it all!

Here is a shot of Rainbow Falls, which can be seen when standing on the Route 9 bridge over the river. The bridge itself is also very pretty to look at.

I hope you're all enjoying your summer just as much as we are.

-Erika

Comments

[Lourin]

What Beautiful Pictures!! thanks for sharing your wonderful weekend with us. NY certainly does have some beautiful parks, mountains and waterfalls. Hugs, Lourin

[kimk]

Awesome sounding trip Erika! Your kids will have the best memories of growing up and doing all of these fun things. :}

You already know you don't have to buy lot's of expensive elctronic toys or have everything or the best of everything. Being together is the best of everything!

We love to Geo Cache, you find lot's of neattrials andplaces, wildlife you may not have seen otherwise in the process of geo-ing!
Check out www.geocache.com or again it may be ** lol
www.geocahing.com
You need a GPS but can get a cheap one for one hundred bucks to start out with. :}
Have fun! I am sure it is something your family would love to do for many years!.
Kimmik