No Large Financial Losses or Personal Injury!

Our camping trip with Teague and Mindy was a success! It was gorgeous weather without a cloud in the sky. We didn't even bother setting up the canopy as we could tell it wasn't going to even think about raining. Needless to say, our camping gear survived this trip without problems. Teague and Mindy arrived in the early evening Friday and set up camp. Ted and I rolled in around 11:30 that night and we all sat around the campfire catching up. Saturday brought an excursion to the local flea market, which was a riot. We all found some wonderful treasures to pack into our cars and take home. We spent the rest of Saturday hanging around the campfire talking and grilling. Thanks to Teague and Mindy for picking up some Snappy Grillers, our favorite camping food from Syracuse! We even got to bring a package home and let the deliciousness continue!

We stayed at the Harper's Ferry KOA in Harper's Ferry, WV, which turned out to be pretty much exactly half-way for each of us. As Ted and I pulled in our driveway tonight I called Teaguer up and they were just pulling into Canastota. It was a really nice campground (though expensive as far as camping goes) and was the perfect meet-up spot. And you really can't beat the flea market. I think it was the best one I've ever been to. At any rate, if any of you New Yorkers ever want to meet up for a weekend camping trip with us, this is the place to do it!

Some pictures from the weekend:


Ted dons an early birthday present from my parents

Eilis and Ted make faces for no particular reason

Teague and Mindy at the flea market

Teddy and Teague check out "the coolest toy gun ever."


The Crew.

A few of our fabulous flea market finds:

Take Two.

We're going camping this weekend with Teague and Mindy. We're not hitting the beach, so I'm hoping we won't run into any hurricane winds. Ted and I got a canopy, so we'll see if it gets destroyed moments after setting it up or not. Poor Paul and Stephanie still have not replaced theirs, nor do they have any plans for beach camping anytime soon!

We've got the camera and camcorder packed and ready to capture the weekend--will update upon our return!

Apparently Hurricane Season Has Arrived.

We drove the 3 hours to the beach with Paul and Stephanie yesterday and were having a lovely time. It was crazy hot and we set up our campsite and had enjoyed frolicking in the surf together. We were enjoying ourselves immensely:




I even took some video documenting how cool it was to camp on a beach:



Ted and I started to hear some thunder in the distance, and there was a chance of rain in the forecast, so we quickly set up our tent and put our things away to keep them dry. Stephanie and Paul returned and we got everything covered and ready for some rain, which came quickly:



Literally minutes after the above video was shot, the wind picked up like nothing we've ever seen before. We first noticed the tarp coming off of the top of the Jeep, so Paul ran over to secure it down. In an instant the wind was blowing even harder and our canopy started to COLLAPSE and blow away. Stephaine, Ted and I jumped up and grabbed hold of it as the wind picked up even more. We could feel the metal crumpling as we held on with all of our might. I remember looking over at our tent, which was staked down a few feet away. It seemed stable. The wind picked up even more and I felt as though I might be pulled into the ocean with the canopy, which was completely imploding at this point. The next thing I saw was Ted and Stephanie running after our TENT, which was tumbling into the ocean (full of all of our stuff) like tumbleweed in a tornado. It was mass hysteria. All the while it was torrential downpour as well and we were all getting soaked to the bone. Luckily it didn't last long, but after approximately 10 minutes of this, our campsite was completely demolished and a few pieces of key camping gear completely destroyed.



With our site destroyed and our spirits a bit dashed, we decided that the best thing to do would be to pack it in. We might have reconstructed and persevered through the night if all of our clothes and sleeping gear weren't drenched. None of us felt like freezing all night, and we had no idea if wind like that was going to occur again. So we quickly loaded the Jeep back up and headed home, with quite a camping story to tell!



Ted demonstrates what the wind was like