"Camping"

Biscuit thinks we went camping yesterday. We did visit a campground, but we did not camp.

My brother and his family are spending this weekend at a campground about an hour away from us. They decided to camp out and go to an apple festival, and they invited us to meet them there.

So yesterday morning, Biscuit, Jeff and I drove over. I was excited about the festival, but our main plan was to go spend time with my brother and his family.

I had no idea how big the festival was. It's an annual event that has been going on for years, but I had never even heard of it before my brother invited us.

This little town, in the foothills of the mountains, usually has a population of 4,200, but about 50,000 people turn out for the festival each year. And we were in the middle of all those people.

We finally found a parking place in a church parking lot and walked down three blocks to get to the edge of the festival. I called my sister-in-law to find out where they were. She told us the name of the bank they were near, and we started making our way through the crowd. 

Of course the bank we needed to get to was on the opposite side of town. I made Biscuit get in his stroller because I was scared he would get lost or stepped on in the crowd. And I was glad I did. Normally, I would say it's a cute little town to explore, and walking down the main street wouldn't normally be that bad. But throw in that it was up and down hills and that crazy people would just stop right in front of us for no good reason, and it didn't take long for me to lose my patience.

We finally found the bank, but there was no sign of my brother and his family. We tried to call them again but couldn't get through. We could see a cellphone tower from where we were standing, and I think that's probably the only cell tower in town. And with thousands of people all trying to use it at once, it just was not working. 

We finally got a call through and tried to be more specific about where we were. It took an hour for us to find each other because it turns out, there are TWO branches of that bank we were looking for.

It was unseasonably hot, it was past lunchtime, and there were a million people who all seemed determined to step in front of Biscuit's stroller and stop at their leisure.

After about half an hour of listening to music and standing in line for awful porta-johns, I could tell that my brother's kids were done. Even though we hadn't looked around at any booths, it was time to go.

So Jeff, Biscuit and I started our journey back to the other side of town.

I look at some of the booths as we were on the way back to our car. I stopped to buy a present for Mama. Then Jeff stopped and bought me some kettle corn.

It seemed to take forever to get back to our car. We finally made it and promptly got lost trying to get to the restaurant we were meeting my brother's family at. All three of us were hot, tired and getting grumpy.

We got to the restaurant, ordered food and started to shake off the stress of dealing with the crowd, blocked streets and the heat.

After lunch, we followed my brother back to the campground. It was a pretty place, and the lots were private. They had a view of the lake and a nice spot for a campfire.

We stayed for dinner, then roasted some marshmallows. Then we experienced the age of technology. The adults had chairs set up around the campfire, and the kids had chairs in a half circle under the camper's awning, watching a movie on a laptop.

It was a nice evening, and I'm really glad we went.

Here are a few pictures:

We could see this pretty lake from the campsite.

I wanted a picture of Biscuit by the lake. This is his fake smile.

What's that in the sky?

Hey, look over there.

"Are we done yet, Mom?"

 

"Can I throw some more rocks now?"

The road to the campsite. I bet it's even prettier when the leaves turn.

We don't get too many pictures of the three of us together.