Happy Father's Day and Happy Campers

     This Fathers Day weekend…..my mom, my dad, and I went camping at Hickory Run State Park, and it totally rocked! We drove up on Friday, because it was the last day of school. It was also an early dismissal day, so we headed out in the middle of the day. On the way over, we had to drop my grandma off at Uncle Vin and Auntie Katie’s house (they finally got married, woohoo!) so grandma wouldn’t be bored while we were away. Auntie Katie let me take their “kids”, George the hippo and Travis the panda, camping, so you will see a lot of pictures of them and Doggy.

      On Saturday, my parents’ college friends, Auntie Alice, Uncle Mike, and their son, Aidan came and joined us. They were late coming up, so my family went to the Boulder Field by ourselves right after breakfast. The Boulder Field is exactly what it sounds like: a really big field of boulders. Next, we met up with our friends at the beach for a nice little picnic lunch. Aidan ate almost half a pound of salami! That kid sure loves salami!

George, Travis and Doggy tree huggers

     Then, we played on the beach and in the water. It was so much fun. After that, we went fishing. Aidan caught 4 trouts, and I caught 1 trout, 1 catfish, 1 sunfish, and 5 salamanders. I gave one of the salamanders to a nice little girl who really wanted it, and brought the rest back to the campsite. 2 escaped overnight since I left the lid open so they won’t suffocate.

     On Sunday, we went on a 2-hour hike. This trail was not the kind of hike we all had in mind. Most of the trail was either through swampy land (from all the rain) or through knee-deep, itchy grass and ticks. These ticks are huge. I am pretty sure they are called American dog ticks.

We had to constantly check each other for ticks and removing them from our clothing. Let’s hope none of us got sick from them. At least, they are not deer ticks which can cause lyme disease. We also had 2 terrible tour guides (Aidan & my dad) who got us lost twice. I don’t think we will be doing this trail again.

     We had lunch with our friends at the pavilion by the beach before we had to say goodbye to them. Then, we drove back to the campsite and I discovered my last two salamanders were gone. During dinner, we had a little visitor, I named him Ricky. 

 After dinner, the 3 of us played poker for candy and enjoyed the last night of a campfire and finally went to bed around 11:30.

Can you spy a smiley face and Doggy?

     

On our last day, we had grilled breakfast Panini sandwiches, and packed the car which took about 2 hours. Then, we went on a 6 mile hike. This one wasn’t as bad as the last one, thank goodness! But it was pretty hilly and was rated “Difficult”. So, it took us 3 hours and 15 min. to finish. At the very top of the trail, we ran into cicada paradise. They were all over the trees and the sound was very loud and annoying. After the hike, we drove back, and picked my grandma up. 
This was an awesome 4-day weekend, and thank you Mommy and Daddy for a great time! Also, Happy belated Father’s Day to all those awesome dads out there. You ROCK!!!!!!!!