As a kid I dreamed about camping. I mean like the real camping. The kind that was written about in my childhood books that had the main characters out in the woods with campfires and lake games. The chicken that I am, the closest I got was the front yard of my "cabin" ( it was really like a mini house you just called a cabin) in Tupper Lake. Food, a bathroom and anything I forgot to bring in the tent was just a hop and a skip away in Cabin 13. I was a chump.

Andrew deemed it a no flap kind of night since there was no rain the forecast and it would be nice to wake up to the sun.

Well, I checked off a new first in my book by finally going on an over night camping trip. A very overdue first considering where I live and the lifestyle of many of those that live in this area. This past week I was a 12 years old all over again, giddy with anticipation. We decided to go on Saturday since there was no rain in the forecast and the low was going to be in the mid 40's. Andrew did not give me any details about where we were going prior, so imagine my excitement when I found out we were kayaking to our destination (score on getting that baby out on the water again)!

We headed off to the Lake Placid Boat Launch and stuffed our kayaks with our mats, tent, sleeping bag, food and warm clothes. The water was a bit rough with even a few white caps that managed to get into Andrews kayak (thankfully he had all the waterproof items). We were an hour into paddling when my prince charming decided to attach my kayak by rope to his so he could help me along (try as I might, I am still so slow in comparison). Thirty minutes later Andrew tells me he thinks the camp site is around the corner. Sure enough there is a dock (with a couple people on it) and a small sandy landing. I was pee my pants excited at this point. The water was clear with nice sand and for all I knew, we were in St. Lucia (I have never been so you can understand the confusion). We pulled up our kayaks out of the water and found a little spot right by the edge to put down our tent (which took less than a minute to put together). A jumble of rocks already set was where we got our small fire going and the most important part of the evening commenced... S'MORE TIME!

I ate three and a marshmallow and Andrew even splurged and had two himself (we used Dandies Vegan Marshmallows in case you were wondering). As you can imagine we then got a little thirsty. Of course as luck would have it, who was responsible for the water? Me. The person that does not drink water. Did the water make it to our camping trip? Not technically. It made it in the truck which took us to the Boat Launch. So half way. Of course the lack of water hardly bothered me, but Andrew drinks the recommended 8 glasses and was slightly freaking out. My solution?! An apple. Its juicy. Problem solved.

We were in our tent by 8:45pm and after some tossing and turning we probably fell asleep by 9:15pm. The beauty of the tent is it is just mesh above and on the sides, so when we woke up at 7:00am the first thing we saw was the beautiful water and mountains (and then I felt the kinks in my back from sleeping on the ground). We were on the water by 7:30am and we were eating our homemade Banana Pancakes in our kitchen at 9:00am.

The best part of living in such an amazing place is having such an enormous playground to explore, and at the pace that I am going at I should be golden until I am 100 or so.

At one point as I sat looking out on the water I turned to Andrew and said, "I really have to relax, don't I? I mean, there is only so many sticks I can pick-up for this fire. I can't sneak off to do laundry or dishes. O this life I live is so hard.....