Last Wednesday, John decided that that Abbott family needed to go on an adventure together. And so, he booked us a campsite on Lake Mooselookmeguntic in Western Maine. When John worked for Outward Bound, he spent some time in the area and thought it would be a fun place to explore with the family-- and the weather forecast was too good to pass up.
And so, we decided we'd pack Friday night and leave Saturday morning for a two-day adventure. Of course, the Friday night packing continued well into Saturday morning, and then we had to drive down to Starksboro to drop Zephy off at the Plimpton-Harris Dog Camp, stopped at a garage sale, grocery shop, and finally got on the road by 12:30pm. The new iphone told us it'd be a four hour drive, but it took us most of the day to get there. Such is the way when you travel with a baby!
A backcountry canoe trip is a step more "hard core" than car camping, but doesn't involve quite the complications of a multi-day backpack trip.
We hooked Cally's "Me Too" chair onto one of the gunwhales of the canoe. Even with the bulky PFD, she did all right on the half hour paddle out to our campsite-- Stoney Batter, a part of the Steven Phillips Wilderness Preserve.
Below are some shots of our site:
We still haven't "upgraded" to a family tent, so we had to figure out how to fit the family into a two-person tent (and a blow up mattress). It ended up working out perfectly. We made a little nest for Cal at the bottom of the tent and she slept like...... a baby, a sleepy little baby!
And she woke up after 7am both mornings, bright eyed and bushy tailed.
Morning coffee has never tasted so good:
And canoes work well as a "play pen" for curious crawling babies who would otherwise be putting every rock and leaf into her mouth.
A few more shots I had to add:
She's definitely a "girl on the go":
And learned to wave last week:
And might even start walking soon:
One the way home, we took the scenic route through Dixville Notch in northern New Hampshire. Those cliffs are hundreds of feet high!
And finally we stopped through Walden, VT to visit our friend's Ray, Sarah, and Audrey (and their wonderful dog Buddy-- who let Cally crawl all over him).
