Camping trip.

We went camping this holiday weekend for the first time in five years, basically since Ivana was born.

We used to camp with Mirek at least a couple of times every year. Whenever there was a long weekend, or just we felt like getting away for a day or two, we'd hop into our very tiny Ford Festiva with two doors and a plastic seat in the back (we used to fill the tank up for $8!), grab the map and pick a destination almost at random. Those times! There was minimum planning involved, we were so spontaneous and full of adventurous spirit. We travelled this way all the way to Maine, to Arcadia National Park and a bit more north to the great wildness almost by the canadian border. We drove to the Florida Keys twice and camped for a week first time on the Gulf coast and the other time in John Pennekemp State Park on the ocean side. And we took shorter trips like to Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, North and South Carolina, Massachusetts, New York State, attempted to visit the Great Lakes area but had a car accident after which our car had to be totaled.

So we have missed going to explore new places, sleeping in the tent, and cooking our meals on the fire. And we have waited out for our girls to be old enough (so we thought) to try the great outdoor adventures again. This time we decide not to go too far, so that the car ride is more or less bearable for the kids and chose The Adirondack National Park in upstate NY. The trip took quite a bit of investment since our tent could no longer accomodate four people, the girls wanted flash lights, we needed another two sleeping bags and our cooking equipment was nowhere to be found.

Choosing the campsite we had to make sure there was a playground for the girls, river or lake nearby for them to swim and play, easy hiking and biking trails and grocery store nearby. See, it's never the same with the kids! I'm no saying that it's worse, it's just more challenging as it requires a lot of planning ahead and making sure they are having a good time! It's not about us anymore!

Anyway, we had a fantastic time! It felt so liberating to be in the woods for a few days again (we went for 4 days). All that fresh air and beautiful mountain scenery around us was so relaxing and calming! We went biking, hiking, playing and swimming in the Loon lake, boating and fishing, we took scenic train ride along the Upper Hudson River.

All the activities were on the smaller scale, of course, but we did them anyway. And it proved us yet one more time that we don't have to wait for our kids to grow older to start finally having fun with them, as some of our friends think, but rather do it now and enjoy every moment! We sure will be doing more camping from now on!

PS: Sadly, we don't have even one single photo from our trip, since both of our cameras let us down with running out of batteries. Ah!