A Family Affair in the Mountains of New York

Friday, July 29, 2022 - Sunday, July 31, 2022

One of these years, I hope, traveling with two kids will afford me a little bit more time to document in real time instead of months later. But much like our 2021 trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, I have to recap our 2022 trip after the fact. Unlike that trip, though, I hope to be able to finish documenting it. I realize now that I never finished writing up about our stay at a small but cute community park along Lake Huron in Pt. AuGres, Michigan, as well as our final stay in Cuyahoga Valley National Park before returning home.

For now, let's look back at 2022, which took us north into New York and Vermont before whipping back south into Pennsylvania. It was a 9-day, 8-night trip that included five different stops and some on-the-fly decisions about when and where to go.

Our reasoning for piecing together a trip like this stemmed from the fact that the annual Menzel family reunion was set to take place at a state park in upstate New York the weekend of July 29-31. After checking things out, and knowing that visiting Burlington and the White and Green Mountains of Vermont has always been on our list, we figured now would be as good as any to take this trip.

Stop number one would be North-South Lake State Park, which was only three hours away from Wilkes-Barre. So, I guess, technically an overnight stay at the lake would be stop 1a and North-South Lake would be stop 1b. And most of our activities would center around what the rest of the Menzel clan was up to, knowing that the main reunion part would take up Saturday.

As for our campsite, it was located in a fairly large campground, even if it didn't feel that way because of the density of hemlocks towering dozens of feet above you.

Traveling with the girls now that they're a year older and have done it a few times, certainly makes things easier. Still challenging at times, but like most things when they're young, each day gets a little bit easier. Each trip gets a little bit easier.

Gotta love the potty out in plain sight, though. That might be a campsite staple for the next year or two.

Having arrived on Friday afternoon, we didn't do too much. We set up the campsite and made a trip to the lake itself. It was a peaceful evening, and we spent some time there taking in all the sights and sounds of a beautiful area located in the Catskills.

I remember driving to the base of the mountain and seeing temperatures in the upper 80s and low 90s. But by the time we zigzagged our way to the park entrance and back to our campground in the hemlock grove, the temperatures dropped to a very comfortable 70-75 degrees. That's always a positive when you're in a non-electric campground.

Fairy dance parties were a hit on this trip.

There was a nice, small playground located across from the lake. Giving the girls a chance to burn some energy at a playground makes life a little bit easier.

Friday night came and went. With Saturday upon us, most of the day would be spent back at the lake at one of the pavilions for the family reunion. Before that, though, breakfast and woodland shenanigans with the girls. At some point, Acadia snatched my phone and began taking a few photographs of that camp life from the eyes of a nearly 4-year-old.

By afternoon, it was time to make our way to the pavilion for the reunion. This would be an opportunity for Acadia and Aspen to meet and play with some of their second cousins. They had an absolute blast rolling down hills, chilling in hammocks, and playing some baseball. Our girls were the youngest of the bunch that played together, and it was nice to see the older cousins showing patience and willingness to play with them throughout the day.

By evening, the girls were getting tired, and we headed back to our campsite. The reunion was starting to wrap up, too, but others would keep the party going at various campsites. We got the girls down, set up a fire, and had some cousins stroll in and out of our site while we stayed put and relaxed, eventually calling it a night at a reasonable time.

The next day would be Sunday. We'd have to head out relatively early in order to beat check-out and get ourselves set up at our next stop: Scaroon Manor Campground on the shores of Schroon Lake - a little further north into the Adirondacks. But we weren't abandoning the entire Menzel family as Dana was set to join us on our trip the rest of the way.

And the nice thing about our next stop: less than three hours away. And there were rumors swirling that on Tuesday we'd see some familiar faces picking us up for a boating excursion on the lake.