This past weekend was spent at Fish Creek Pond State Park in the Adirondacks of upstate New York. It's a huge campground that hugs the perimeter of the equally massive lake. There is something like 300+ lakefront sites.
We had site #1, and we picked that for a few different reasons. For starters, it was near the entrance (minimal drive after arrival), it was near a restroom (always a plus with kids), it was near the beach and pavilion (convenient on Saturday for the family reunion), and it was one of only 5 sites to the left of the entrance station (minimal vehicle traffic which is great when you have a kid that wants to bike a lot).
Thursday's travel day has already been documented, so let's pick up with Friday.
We all slept in on Friday and woke up slowly and with no set plan. We ran into a few family members, and it was decided that a good number of Menzels who were in the campground already were going to do a Panther Trail hike sometime in the late afternoon.
The trailhead was about 10-15 minutes from the campground and somewhat on the way to the small town of Tupper Lake, which would come in handy after the hike. The trail itself was pretty daunting for anybody under 6-and-a-half, which meant that Acadia crushed it while Aspen and any of the second cousins younger than her needed multiple boosts of energy and encouragement. What made this hike so difficult was that it starts off with elevation. And it's straight up for something like 500 feet over the course of a half mile. There are switchbacks, slippery rocks, and roots all over the place. The entire hike is only a mile-long out-and-back. You're in the woods for 99% of it. When you finally get to the summit, it opens up on to some rocky slabs and incredible views of the hills, mountains, valleys, and lakes in this section of the Adirondacks.
After some group photos, chats, and snacks, we made the hike back down the same path - fortunate that this would be all downhill until we were back at the trailhead.
Once we had all made it back, most ventured back to the campground while we needed to drive the extra 10 minutes to get into Tupper Lake for one of the most desperate, essential load of laundry. It was also early afternoon, so we snagged some pizza and coffee while waiting for our chores to be done.
Friday afternoon and evening was spent back at the campground, but Cara and I were one different activity schedules. She spent time with Aspen at the playground and swimming in the lake, while Acadia and I went on a bike ride around the entire lake and a little bit of a boat ride.
Dinner came late, s'mores a little bit later, and bedtime at the latest. Cara and I spent time just hanging out in the hammocks watching the open skies and open lake once the girls had gone to bed. Friday night was cool and crisp with temperatures dipping into the low 50s or upper 40s.
Saturday was the family reunion.
Everybody slept in to about 8:30, which was a big win that everybody needed, even if they're super young and don't want to admit it. At some point in the late morning, the girls teamed up and made yet another fairy garden at our campsite. This has become somewhat of a ritual on this trip, and it's been incredible to see the two girls work together, interact, play, and problem-solve issues as sisters. This fairy garden was actually two different gardens with a train track and train to go between the two of them.
We hung around camp a little bit before gearing up for a little bike ride to the local camp store to reload on ice. Between the stay in the White Mountains and the Adirondacks, we were on about 5 days and 4 nights without electricity. No fridge, all cooler.
Once back with our run, we changed into suits and headed over to the pavilion for the family reunion. We spent about 6 or 7 hours at the beach area eating lunch and dinner. The girls had such a blast playing with their second cousins and swimming in the lake. Aspen loved testing her swimming abilities in the lake as well as reenacting various scenes from Frozen and Frozen 2. Acadia also enjoyed the Frozen play as well as being a babysitter to Ellie, her nearly 2-year-old second cousin, by pushing her in the swing and play-chasing her around the playground.
The girls have really grown up and done quite a bit of independent (and group) play on this trip. On Saturday, their recent strength in this regard gave Cara and I plenty of opportunities to catch up with cousins, aunts, and uncles who we don't see too often.
But by about 9 PM, there was this hilarious episode of cousins commiserating as their exhausted kids pretty much gave up and melted down in one way or another on what was great day with beautiful weather and nonstop activities.
We made a small fire before getting the girls down to bed. Cara and I were exhausted as well, but we also knew that Sunday was a travel day. There was also a chance of rain overnight, so we broke down most of camp and then just hung in the hammocks once again watching our fire die out while playing some different games.
For us, Sunday morning came quickly and the weather report told us that we didn't have much time to get everything broken down and hitched up. We were in a frantic mode as the downpour started. We were fairly soaked as we said our goodbyes to Cara's parents, dropped off trash, and headed south.
We're still in New York, but we're in familiar territory with a two-night stay at Robert Treman State Park outside of Ithaca.
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