John must have some pretty great intuition, because over a month ago, he booked a site for us to canoe/camp up on Lake Mooselookmeguntic in Western Maine. He must have known that getting back into the swing of dual working parents wouldn't be easy-- but this year, adding to the regular hustle and bustle of new school years, we have one car in the shop, our laundry machine is awaiting a new pump and we're waiting on a new part for our lawn mower...we needed a relaxing weekend like your read about!
With the overreactive predictions of national forecasters tracking Hurricane Earl, we almost canceled John's well intentioned plans. We didn't pack up ahead of time and woke up Saturday morning sort of wishy-washy about the whole thing. We both knew we needed to take advantage of our three day weekend-- take some time to recharge for the rest of the fall, but didn't really want to drive four hours and get rained on, either. In the end, we took a careful look at the satellite and decided to just "go for it". Within about an hour, we were loaded with the canoe, the dog, and the Abbott family was off and running.
Five hours later, we arrived in familiar territory. We'd been to the Rangely Lakes part of Maine for our first time exactly a year ago, but this year we actually knew where to get maps and where our camp site was. And this year, Cally wasn't just crawling, she was running and narrating our whole trip. Our paddle was very short to the island campsite (you can see the island from where we "put in")-- which was fortunate because Earl did send some winds this way and much of the lake was covered with white caps on Sunday.
Cally was in heaven all weekend long. We didn't bring a single toy for her, but she had such a great time throwing rocks, getting sticks for Zephy, going for hikes and paddles, and helping out wherever she could.
And Zephy, our somewhat delinquent dog, was the biggest surprise of the trip. She took to the canoe and the camping like we had always hoped she would (but hasn't until now). And it was her second birthday recently, so we're optimistic that she's making a turn towards maturity.
Most importantly, we all relaxed,
explored,
and ate well.
Now we can gear up for another short week. Hopefully, we'll get our dual working parent "groove" on soon. But meanwhile, Cally seems no worse for the wear!
