Camping at Blackwoods

 We bought a new tent a few weeks ago from L.L. Bean, which was actually made by Kelty. It was an expensive, large tent with air poles instead of traditional poles. In the advertisement, it claimed you could set it up in 60 seconds. That was enough for me, plus I'm always willing to give something like this a try to see how I like it. So a couple weeks ago, we set it up in our backyard when a huge rain storm was coming down to put it to the test. It failed miserably in many areas, but my biggest gripes are that it takes 20 minutes to set up, it is not a sturdy structure and tended to collect rain water on top, and does not fit back into its bag very well when trying to pack it up. All no-no's in my book. So we took it back and got a Eureka Copper 8 for $60 cheaper. Wow, what a difference! Sturdy tent poles, soundly structured, relatively easy to set up (at least it's intuitive), and it actually packs back into it's storage bag. Folks, we've got a winner! We booked a Friday night in the Blackwoods Campground in Acadia to test it out. 

We could not have asked for a more perfect night. It was relatively dry and breezy, which meant there weren't as many bugs. It was clear, so we could keep the rain fly off which I love. And food always tastes better when you are camping. Mal made her always delicious homemade graham crackers for s'mores. Madie always sleeps like a rock when we camp. We are conditioning Finn at the moment. He was so excited that he didn't fall asleep until after 10:00 pm, which led to a night terror at 2:00 am. Other than that, it was a great trip.

Mal enjoying the fire.

We brought Elvis for the trip. He didn't like being tied to a tree, but was probably glad he didn't have to sleep home alone (wuss!).

Finn trying his first s'more of the summer.

Madie gave it a whirl, but I think she prefers it without chocolate. Might be hard to take it all in, but she'll come around.

This is what I woke up to. Life is good.

Sunrise is at 4:45 am here right now, which is peak summer solstice. It was beautiful.

I ran Elvis home after the sunrise so that we didn't have to worry about bringing him along with us, and I snapped this on my way back to camp.

We went for a hike near The Tarn Saturday Morning. Finn was obsessed with the water.

He was pretty content holding blankie and sucking on his 1-2 combo.

Madie and Finn both love camping. I remember going camping a lot when I was her age, and loving every minute of it. I think it was especially fun since I grew up in suburbia and didn't have access to woods to play in. It was exotic. I think the experience of sleeping/eating/living outside is equally fun and exotic no matter where you live.

Mal catching up on Les Miserables.

Eating a fruit snack in the Abnaki shelter near the Wild Gardens of Acadia.