Fresh Air and Jello Shots

Every journey has a destination, even the car-destroying, bank account-emptying journey described in my last post.  Said destination was a family reunion camping trip in Vermont.  I hadn’t been to this campground in over a decade, and had not gone camping in almost as long, so it was quite the treat.

Beyond the usual camping type activities – changing wet shoes, playing with fire, avoiding taking showers – the 40+ relatives and assorted guests that were at the campground managed to cram in a bunch of stuff in the regretfully shortened time I was there.  Foremost would probably be climbing the “mountain” that overlooked the campsite (1100 feet isn’t anything to sneeze at, I was sore for two days).  Last time I was there I made two unsuccessful attempts to climb it, failing because a) I was in the fourth grade and b) adults are wimps.  Felt good to finally deal with that unfinished business, and it was awesome to look down over everything I had just climbed up.

Nights at the campground used to be consumed by sitting around the fire, eating lots of sugary things cooked over said fire and falling over roots in the dark.  As an adult, things were pretty much the same, excepting the inclusion of beer and jello shots.  And I seemed to trip over tree roots a bit more often – jello shots can take their toll.

We also went to a Vermont flea market – words can’t really do justice to the wide array of crazy things you can buy there.  Goods being peddled ranged from toilet paper and flyswatters to samurai swords and fake prada purses.  I settled for a hand squeezed lemonade and conning my sister into letting me “taste” half her snowcone.

It was great hanging out with all of the relatives, especially around mealtimes.  Some may call it mooching, I call it spreading the joy of my mealtime company.  Mooching is probably a more appropriate term though – my sole contribution to food preparation and cleanup over the weekend was helping a few people open their beers when we couldn’t find a bottle opener.

Bring on the tequila and sunblock…Spring Break is here!

Yes, Spring Break is capitalized for a reason.  As of 5 pm on Thursday, my spring break started.  It’s going to be three days long, but it’ll be worth it, because I’m finally caught back up in school and can relax a bit.  So I have a beer, my couch, and a movie playing.

The real vacation will be next weekend, when I drag M across several states to visit some old friends and relatives.  But we’ll stop off at one of the largest malls in the country and, weather/time permitting, step in the ocean*, so it’ll be a nice little adventure.

*by ocean, I mean the one off the coast of New Jersey, not Fiji, Mexico or the Bahamas