The Boy's Weekend Camping

Tyler is a great photographer! Just look at that Eagle, and he was in a rocking boat to boot!

Camping always means something different for everyone. For me growing up camping was something that you did as a cheaper alternative to hotels. You were camping because there was something nearby that you were doing, like hiking a mountain, or biking Acadia. Camping was just the means that you used so that you could be closer to your destination. We always camped in campgrounds, usually out of Maine, and regularly joked that we went camping to be in the city. Remember we lived in a field. An empty field at that. 

Camping for Tyler meant going to specific lakes, or mountains in Maine and Maine only. His family would pack up and spend a good long weekend on one of our beautiful lakes that no one has ever heard of. I never knew there were so many pretty places in Maine.  They weren't those rustic campers that wore the same underwear the whole weekend either. Their camping kitchen, in fact, contained more gadgets than my home kitchen. Cooking was a big camping event, in complete contrast, my family lived off of PBJ's and cereal while camping. 

As you can imagine when we got married and started camping together we needed to somehow blend these two different upbringings. My family's "KISS and campground" method did not seem to mesh well with the gourmet three hours to prepare camping meals in the wilderness method he was used to, and his family's "camping for the sake of camping" method was not my idea of fun.  I think that after 7 years we have come to a happy medium in these methods: I have learned to pack eggs for breakfast, plan slightly more sophisticated dinners, and enjoy the wild. Tyler has learned to embrace the idea of camping in a campground to get closer to Acadia or some "out of Maine" location.  Actually, I have found that I prefer the in the middle of nowhere camping spots way better, and cooking over a campfire can be fun.  

I was reminded of Tyler's prior camping methods this month when he and Eli went up to the Camp on Second Chain Lake with Randy (If you don't know where that is, don't worry, no one else does either).  Upon inspection of their wonderful pictures I saw one of the kitchen, and I couldn't help but laugh.  I wish that I had a picture to show you the elaborate setup.  Randy sees sophistication, and all I see is more stuff to pack, clean, setup and take down; no thank you. Not that it really matters this was the boy's weekend camping trip and they can have as elaborate of a kitchen as they want, as for me and the ones at home I think that we lived that weekend off of pizza, macaroni and cheese, and PBJ's.  

Elijah caught a 10 inch pickeral! What a great little fisherman!

I like this idea of a boy's weekend camping trip every year: Elijah got to go this year, and when Josiah is 4 he can start going and so on. I have got it all worked out, by the time our fourth boy is 4 we can rename this wonderful weekend to Mommy's time alone weekend!  YAY! You gotta look for the good in every situation.