Camping Trip - Day Two

One of the best things about setting up camp at nightfall is waking up and discovering the site in the morning. No matter how exhausted I am, I always wake up around sunrise because I am so excited to see what is around me. When we fell asleep Sunday night, the caucophony of animal sounds was almost comical. The loons taking off from the water sounded like hordes of splashing teenagers, the loon calls went on for hours, and there were lots of unidentified howls and chirps and rustles. When I woke up, it was almost silent, except for the bird calls, and the mist was still on the pond.

Today was just about relaxing at camp with no plans so I took a quick early morning trip around in the kayak (ironically, I stumbled upon a waterfall. I swear it wasn't planned). After a breakfast of oatmeal and stewed apples with cinnamon, lemon juice and sugar ( a winner), the boys and I headed out for a bit more exploring while Joe had some down time. We headed into the swamps and found a small pond called Pink. We deemed it not up to snuff and headed back. We then had our lunch (cured meats, french bread, cheese, peanut butter, chocolate etc.) and the afternoon was for swimming, napping, reading. Heaven. A tribute to Oscar's conversational prowess is that Joe found him happily chatting with me in the tent, while I was dead asleep.
The chipmunks became our nemeses and they literally stole a serrated knife from the site. It was quite a scene seeing Joe chase down the cute furry creature with a huge knife in his mouth. Oscar was aiding the effort and threatened "i'll make a sandwich outta you, chipmunk". I'll call the therapist when we return. For dinner, we had spanish rice with grilled quesadillas and homemade salsa ( a winner). The boys had their special root beer treat and marshmallows, and Joe and I had a great pinot noir and some dark chocolate. At nightfall, we were treated to an amazing site, a beautiful full moon. I mean, we couldn't have planned it better! I wasted hordes of digital camera space trying to capture the beauty but Joe wisely suggested it was of no use. I'd have to try to remember. It was huge and literally lit up our camp site with no artifical light needed. We all went to bed early, as the next day was going to be our big paddle day.