Last weekend was the first weekend all summer that we could schedule a camping trip. We made the reservations a while ago, but got a little nervous last week when Hurricane Earl rolled up the East Coast. Thankfully, he never made it to us, but sent some gloriously cool weather our way for the weekend.
We visited a new state park - Bear Creek Lake - and
loved it. Good trails, friendly park rangers, and a beach and playground.
The weather was perfect and we got one of the two best campsites in the park! We were at the end of the road, overlooking the lake.
From the trail, looking back at our site: 
From the road, looking at our campsite and out over the lake:
We were close enough to the water that we felt comfortable letting the boys go down to explore by themselves.
Charlie is a good camping dog. She doesn't freak out and bark at everyone who walks by and is pretty happy to chill at the campsite.
We took a long hike all the way around the lake on Saturday. It was probably close to 5 miles. The boys did great for such a long walk!
Looking for the lizard on the tree:
Apple break. Rudy had no idea he had two apple stickers on his forehead...
Number 4 tree:
We spent Saturday afternoon hanging out at the beach. The boys played in the water, played and some football. There were a few ranger activities as well.
Brady entered the art contest and both kids entered the "Wazzat" quiz. Brady won for entering and getting 7 correct answers.
Rudy won for most creative answers. For some of the items, he guessed saber tooth cat (for a beaver skull), horn (for a rib bone), pelican feather (for a blue heron feather), baby t-rex (for a squirrel skull).
Back at the campsite...why else would there be a giant tree stump in the camp site if not for climbing?
They did a lot of scootering around the street loop. They eventually got more adventurous and starting off roading as well.
Love the leftover smores on this face...any time we commented on the general filth of the kids, Brady would say, "But we're camping!" I've said that before, just because there is really no point to trying to stay clean when in the great outdoors. Apparently, Brady thinks it also means that he doesn't have to wash his hands or his face as long as we're camping.
Morning view from the campsite...
Chill in the air!
Brady with his winning art contest entry:
On Sunday, we rented a canoe for an hour to explore the lake from a different angle. When Brady and I were out, we saw several weird floating blobs of goo. We were calling them "sea monsters," but Brady asked the ranger and found out they were bryozoa, which are apparently a whole colony of tiny animals.
The rangers also had a scavenger hunt on Sunday, so set off on a two mile hike to find a variety of things in nature.
Near the end, we found something even cooler than anything on the scavenger hunt. I was in the lead, after Charlie, and heard something in the brush on my left and then something rubbed along my ankle. I thought it was just a loose stick that Charlie had dislodged, but then Brady shouted, "A snake! I saw a snake!"
Eek. At least it was only this guy:
All in all, a great way to spend Labor Day Weekend!
