Showing posts with label Camping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Camping. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Cape Ann Camping

Well it is supposed to be a diver's retreat but it seems that only about five of the twenty or so people that go actually dive. It seems that Mel Rich (the coordinator) has been going to this particular camp for many years now and arranged for our group to have a section of approximately fifteen sites reserved for us. Cape Ann is located a little north of Gloucester, MA along the salt marshes. Obviously since Jaedyn and I don't dive we dropped the kayak in off one of the jetties and paddled through the salt marshes, which were defiantly a different experience. They start out like a very calm river following the tides, weather is going in or out, and then they get narrow and start to wind around like a maze. Every once in a while I'll come to a dead end and have to turn around and remember how I got in to begin with. Oh who am I kidding, they were all dead ends. A couple of times I tried to stand up on the grassy marsh and see if I could find a way through to the river but it just looked like one big grassy field. As the picture can clearly show, between the grass are small thin water ways that i was paddling through. Sometimes I thought that I was coming to another dead end and suddenly a water way would appear around the high grass. This was defiantly like nothing I'd ever paddled through. I only wish Jaedyn had gotten to see it. Yeah she feel a sleep about twenty minutes into our trip and I had to wake her up when we arrived at the boat ramp.

Now how could I forget about dinner on Saturday night... This is what we were all waiting for. The LOBSTERS. I'm not talking about your 1 1/2 pound'ers that you get at the market. These babies were right off the boat. Lets see, we drove into Gloucester Saturday morning around 9:00 A.M. and went to the back door of warehouse on the water and waited for a scruffy old gentleman to let us in. We walked into a room with large crates floating in water that was being circulated by large hoses, kind of like a jacuzzi for lobsters, only the water was really COLD. Then we just let him know what size we wanted, payed and left. I can tell you that know one got anything less than three pounds and the largest was ten pounds. We opted to get a six pound that we split. Next time we're going to get a ten, because at six pounds it cost us $46 and a ten only costs about $12 more. Oh, we ate well that night. We had already brought our own corn potatoes and butter but it seems that Mel and his friends had already chipped in to get corn and potatoes for everyone, thanks any way.

On Sunday we drove into Gloucester and walked around shore and by the statues on the coast, like the "old man and the Sea." Then finished out or trip by having lunch at "The Gull" restaurant, which supposedly have the best seafood chowda. I'm glad that we went and if at all possible I really want to go again next year. Although the way things are looking right now, Jaedyn, Autumn and I may be living in New York in our first home. So we have a lot of good things going on right now and we are all really excited.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

The Last Horah!!

The count down to kindergarten is coming to an end with ONE DAY LEFT. As summer is coming to an end I decided to take the family on one final camping trip. We decided on Lake Warmaug state park in New Preston, CT. Autumn actually did a wedding several years ago at the country club right down the road. The days prior to our trip had me a little worried because the fuel pump on the Saab broke and had to spend some time in the shop. So I was a little uneasy about going away an not knowing if I was going to have a car on Wednesday to get to work. Everything did work out and Barney and the boys at Swedish motor works took care of everything while we enjoyed the cool night by the campfire and kayaking around the lake. It seems that the company that rents out kayaks close down at 4:00 and by the time we had set up the camp site and gotten our bathing suits on they were no longer renting for the day. No worries, Autumn and I just took turns chauffeuring Jaedyn around the lake. After dinner, smores and a good nights sleep we woke up to a cool morning and a nice hot fire to eat breakfast by.

After packing up the camp site we headed off to Kent to see the falls and check out down town. The falls were nice; I can only imagine what they'd be like in the spring time after a good rain. Autumn was talking the whole time about filters and her other cameras and coming back in the spring to photograph the falls again. All in all a good couple of days to relax before we take on a new adventure with Jaedyn and for us.