Fresh Air

Back from our 3 day camping trip to the Great Northwoods of Wisconsin.  Headed up Friday morning early with the 2 kids in my house that keep calling me daddy and met my folks at a campground we've camped at since we were little kids, about 6 hours north of home, Langlade County Veterans Memorial Park.  Great lake for swimming, camping, hiking, fishing, you name it.  We pitched our little 3 person tent next to my folks camper, threw an air mattress in it, and called it home for the next two nights.  Weather cooperated beautifully except for a few storms that came through early Friday evening.  If anything, it let me test the tent for waterproofness.  It passed. On the menu for Friday was fresh walleye and perch pan fried, (caught by others), cutup garlic potatoes over the fire, and sweet corn on the cob cooked over coals.  Saturday my sister and her family came over from Green Bay and spent the day.  Saturday night's menu called for homemade spaghetti from my mother(the best in the world), a big pan of Lasagna from my sister, and once again, sweet corn on the cob over coals.  Just because we were camping and "roughing" it, doesn't mean you shouldn't eat right.  Both nights included the biggest, most hugest, marshmallows I have ever seen, cooked over the fire.  Saturday night, my son and I did some fishing, but we mostly just ended up feeding all the baby fish in the lake our worms.  My son was happy about that.  The biggest deal of the trip was for my daughter who heard my stories about how you could swim in the lake at any time of the day.  You see, here at the beach, the lifeguards blow their whistles the first second the sun dips below the tree horizon line.  This means "Beach closed".  At this lake, there are no lifeguards and the beach is open 24/7.  My daughter was intrigued with my stories of swimming when it was pitch black out and how you could hear your voice a mile away due to the echo over the lake.  She could not fathom such a thing.  I don't care if that lake had frozen over between our arrival and Saturday night.  She was going swimming in the dark and she did.  My son did, too. Kinda.  After wading in up to his waist, the darkness of the sky and water made him think twice.  Oh yeah, a couple of bats grabbing mosquitoes did also.  Sunday was a big breakfast of sausage, eggs, and pancakes and then off to the beach one more day.  The kids and I rented a canoe for awhile and explored the lake.  A sunken rowboat was the highlight and of course led me into a story of all the people who died on that rowboat on that stormy night on the lake and how they now haunt the woods surrounding us.(Kids are great).  Soon enough, though, it was time to pack up and head south.  After a busy weekend of fun, I think everyone was ready to hit the road and get back to our house and see mommy.  I didn't do alot of shooting since we were usually at the beah or at the campsite and you can only shoot those areas so much and they aren't always that exciting.  I did manage to get some super early morning shots on Sunday.  Remember, the air mattress for two that was for all three of us?  Come around 4:30 a.m. Sunday I had enough of fighting for position so I got up and started snapping down at the  beach.  Got some nice shots and I will be posting some shots from the whole weekend in the upcoming days.  Here's one of the 4:30 a.m. shots: