This year, however, we opted to tack it on to the end of our two-week road trip around the Northeast. This stay broke up an 8ish hour drive from the family reunion in the Adirondacks. It took us a little over 4 hours to get here. It will take us a tad over 3 hours to get back to central PA.
With this being the final stop of the journey, only one full day in the area, and being familiar with a good portion of the parks and town, we were certainly in "take it easy" mode. There were no set plans, but there were things we wanted to do. Weather cooperated, and it made for the perfect stay.
Sunday's travel was wet and rainy, but we arrived just before a storm rolled in. We got the camper sorta set and leveled before waiting out the cell for about 15 minutes. There was another instance or two of drizzle, but for the most part, things began to cool off. And we began to explore Robert H. Treman State Park campground.
Despite coming to this park many times in the past, this is the first time that Cara and I are not camping in one of the cabins. With the way the park sets up their cabin rentals along with how we've often come in early June, we've always done weekend visits.
Both girls have been to this park before as well. This year, however, with our site in the main loop next to cabins, there was something that they just had to do the second they were unbuckled and out of the car: go to the playground. The site had electricity, proximity to the waterfall, and an easy view of the playground. This was just another huge plus for this stop. The girls could play within view of our site. And did they ever play.
By mid-afternoon, we decided on walking from our site over to the Enfield Falls swimming area. During the summer, the area is a popular spot with a diving board that launches you into the gorge and spectacular sights and sounds of a waterfall, which you can swim over too if you'd like. Both Cara and I jumped in a few times while Aspen and Acadia did a little bit of swimming in the shallower water.
After that, we made our way back to the campsite. The girls, obviously, went off to the playground, while Cara prepped dinner.
Dinner came and the girls went - back to the playground once again. I ended up taking Molly to the waterfall as the lifeguards and people vacate after 7 PM. Molly had the water to herself for quite a while before the rest of the family rolled in to throw sticks and enjoy the waterfall once again.
Eventually, we made our way back to the site. The girls made some s'mores by fire before taking off to the playground, which was absolutely hopping with kids as the sun started to set. They played until well past 9 PM, whie Cara and hung by the fire keeping an eye on them. By 9:30, though, it was time for the bedtime routine, which hasn't been too bad and often time pretty quick on this trip. I'm guessing that the reason for that is because they're playing and doing things so late into the evening. Thankfully, they've also been sleeping in.
On Saturday, we slowly woke up, ate some breakfast, and then started to gear up for a few activities around town. Of course, we needed to pry the girls from the playground in order to go.
Although there are trails straight off the campground at Treman, we opted to do something a little bit easier for the girls on day #14. We drove about 20 minutes to Taughannock State Park for a 1.5-mile out-and-back stroll to the namesake falls. The hike took nearly 2 hours because the girls couldn't help themselves from stopping to pick wild wineberries at the start. At times, it took a little bit of poking and prodding by us to keep Aspen moving, but she did it.
Across the street, it's still part of Taughannock State Park. There's a marina, huge open field, and - most importantly - a playground! We had lunch and enjoyed the cool temperatures and breezes off of Cayuga before departing for some coffee and shops in downtown. We didn't want to spend too much time away from camp as we (read: Cara and I) still wanted to do some swimming back at Treman.
By late afternoon, we were on our way back to the diving board a few feet from Enfield Falls for about an hour.
From then on, it was a mix of dinner, playgrounds, and snacks as the fire crackled and daylight waned.
Tomorrow will mark the 15th day since we left our home. We are little grimier than we were on July 8, and our laundry has grown exponentially while our available clothing supply is nearly depleted. On this trip, we saw temperatures ranging from the low 50s in the Adirondacks to heat and humidity making it feel like it was nearly 100 in both the Delaware Water Gap and our travel day from Maine to New Hampshire. We saw our families, and did some incredible hikes. We blew out tires and ate McDonald's.
I'd like to think that Cara would agree with me in saying that this road trip was a huge success. The girls grew up tremendously over just these two weeks. I'm thankful to have given them an opportunity to explore. Hopefully, we're doing the right thing here.
Who knows where our next trip will take us? I may have checked Google maps this morning to see how far of a drive it is from Lewistown to Aspen, CO. Cara only rolled her eyes and laughed a doubtful laugh.
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