Saturday, July 11, 2009

Aaron's first camping trip

As soon as school let out, John wanted to take Genevieve camping. At first it was just going to be the two of them, but she very sweetly entreated me to come too. I wasn't sure how Aaron would do but I figured I'd give it a shot. The first time we took Genevieve camping, she was 2 years old and cried all night. John ended up driving her around until dawn. Aaron did great, though. He seemed to really enjoy the outdoors, and at night he curled up with me in my sleeping bag.

So we had a great time. We went to Stony Brook State Park, which is only a little more than an hour away, and the park was beautiful. It's near Letchworth, which is bigger and more well known, but this was just as pretty and much less crowded. We even managed to avoid the rain for the most part (it's been raining nearly constantly all summer so far).

We did all the usual stuff: cooked over the campfire, made s'mores, read Harry Potter...

The next day we went hiking. The trail runs right along the river with numerous waterfalls and bridges. It was great. It reminded me of Watkins Glen, or Taughannock. They even have a section dammed up for a pool (it was freezing, though) and a marvelous playground.

Luckily Aaron enjoyed the backpack carrier. He spent at least half the hike dozing on John's back, and the rest of the time he just looked around and sucked on his hand happily.

The rain started just when we were ready to leave. If only we had packed up the tent earlier, it would have been perfect. As it was, we ended up stuffing a wet tent in the car as usual. At home we pitched it in the backyard to dry out, but of course it has rained practically every day since, so I'm still waiting...