The great outdoors

I know I promised pictures from last weekend's camping trip. You can see them here...

Last trip of the summer

We made our final camping trip of the summer over the weekend with a return to Old Forge.

In the five years that we’ve been camping, this is the first time that we’ve ever repeated a campground (not counting our stays at Uncle Rush’s cabin this year and in 2005). Usually we always try to pick a different spot, but we enjoyed Limekiln Lake so much last year that we went back this year.

Our campsite was even better this time. This year we were right on the water. The panoramic shot above is the view from our site.

Being on the water also meant that we had some extra visitors. As soon as we arrived, a duck heard us and swam over to the shore. He came out of the water, hopped up the embankment and then waddled right over to the picnic table where we were eating lunch. We didn’t give him any food, but he was persistent. He returned several times, and with reinforcements. The ducks were obviously used to getting free handouts.

We also made a return visit to Enchanted Forest Water Safari. Once again, I let the family pick any slide in the park for me to go down. This time they wanted me to go down “The Shadow” – a 42-foot-tall twisty, curvy tube that sends you sliding down pretty fast.

Nolan wanted to try to The Shadow too, which really surprised me. I remember how scared he was of most of the rides at Disney World and last year it took us while to convince him to try the kiddy slides at Water Safari. This time he seemed all into it. He stood in line, but had a change of heart at the last minute. That’s probably just was well. The ride was faster and little scarier than I thought it would be.

We were supposed to stay for two nights, but with the end of our busy summer in sight the fatigue is starting to set in. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want summer to end. But we’ve been doing so much that our heart wasn’t completely into this trip. We might have skipped the whole thing, but the kids (ok, and me too) were looking forward to Water Safari. So we only went for one night instead.

Next year we might take a break from tent camping and stick to cabins. But you never know. That’s what we say now. Maybe by next summer we’ll be anxious to break out the camping gear again.

BTW, it was cloudy the one night we stayed (in fact, there was a thunderstorm overnight). So we didn’t see any of the meteor shower. Bummer.

Here are some more photos from the trip…

Back to the great outdoors

Our first camping trip of the summer is behind us. We spent the night last night at Cherry Plain State Park.

What was great about this trip was that we went with most of the other families from our Cub Scout den. There were four families there. Counting siblings, there were 10 kids altogether. Everyone had someone else the same age to play with. As a result, they all had a blast.

It was a little too chilly to swim, but there were plenty of other things to do. It was 24 hours of fishing, hiking, skipping rocks, playing ball and just plain running around.

Last night after the kids went to sleep the moms and dads stayed up late chit chatting around the campfire. Wow! Socializing with other adults without kids around! How often does that happen?

It was a quick trip – just one night. But everyone had a great time, and the little campground we discovered is a hidden gem. We all agreed that this might have to become an annual event.

Belated camping shots

As I mentioned before, I pulled out our camera while camping in New Hampshire last weekend only to discover the batteries dead and I didn’t have nay back-ups with me.

We were camping with our friends, Mike & Sharon Reed, and fortunately their camera was working just fine. Sharon e-mailed us a bunch of photos and a couple of videos yesterday.

Pictured here are Nolan and Thomas with Simon and Ava Reed. This was taken during a nature hike at the campground we were staying at.

I’ve youtubed the videos she sent. The first is of Nolan and Simon on the swings…



The second clip shows a Rooneys vs. Reeds volleyball match…

Back from the woods

We returned from our final camping trip of summer 2006 yesterday afternoon.

Unfortunately, the batteries in our camera died. So I wasn't able to get any good pictures.

But, as always, the kids had a good time in the great outdoors. They really love camping. At home they love their TV and video games like any kid. But once we get to the campground it's as if they forget about all that stuff. They don't even ask for it. All they care about is playing baseball, going on hikes and roasting marshmallows. It's a nice change of pace.

This will likely serve as our farewell to summer. School starts in about a week and a half.

Back to the woods

We're heading off on camping trip number three tomorrow. We'll be in New Hampshire with our friends the Reeds. Cross your fingers and hope we don't get rained on too much.

Picture and recap to follow...

The bear basics

When we went camping we experienced something new. We were told that Limekiln Lake was a "Class A campground" for bears. Therefore, every site came equipped with a "bear locker" to store all of our food in.

Normally we keep food and anything else we don't want animals getting into locked up in our car. But this time we had specific instructions to use this locker and not our car.

As a result, Kris was a little nervous about running into a bear during the trip--particularly during a late night run to the bathroom. We never saw a bear in our campground, but one did cross the road in front of us during our drive home.

Anyway, maybe it's just as well we didn't spot this story before our trip:

DEC officers shoot, kill agressive black bear

SARANAC LAKE, N.Y. (AP) - A team of state environmental conservation officers and wildlife experts shot and killed a black bear that had shown aggressive behavior toward people hiking in Adirondack High Peaks region.

The Department of Environmental Conservation say the bear killed early Monday morning was a male who was more than 20 years old and weighed about 350 pounds.

DEC officials say the officers shot the bear when it entered a camp site looking for food. The agency says it was the same bear that had entered lean-tos where people were staying on three different occasions last month.

In one incident, a man lured the bear away from his son after the animal had cornered his son in a lean-to. In another incident, campers had to hit the bear with their hiking sticks when it became aggressive.

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Java Joe

After jumping through some hoops, I finally got some vacation pictures to show up on Blogger. So please revisit my earlier post.

Here’s one more I just had to share. This is Thomas enjoying his first cup of coffee.

Every morning when I’m making the coffee at home he sits at the kitchen counter and says, “Mmm, I like coffee!” We always tell him he wouldn’t like it.

But on our trip, we figured what the heck, we’re camping. So one morning we let him have half a cup along with his pancakes and bacon—like a real rugged outdoorsman! Of course he loved it.

Don’t worry. It was decaf. The last thing we needed was him all wired up!

One final camping note...this year's goatee didn't last long. I shaved it off before church Sunday morning.

Happy campers

Blogger might not be letting me upload pictures, but fortunately YouTube is working fine...

Adirondack Rocky Mountain High

The intrepid Rooney family has returned from the Adirondack wilderness. We spent several days camping at the Limekiln Lake state campground in the town of Inlet, just outside of Old Forge.

Here’s the recap:
Day 1: We arrived Monday afternoon and spent most of the day setting up camp. Actually, Kris did most of the work while I took the kids to the beach to keep them out of her hair.

Day 2: We went to Enchanted Forest Water Safari. We were there pretty much the whole day, now that we don’t worry so much about rushing Thomas back for a nap anymore. I think it was the longest family outing we ever went on.

I was pretty impressed with the park. It’s been around for more than 50 years and was bigger than I expected. We started off on their “lazy river” ride, which was very relaxing. Nolan had a blast on a kid-sized water slide. And we all took a raft ride down the Cascade Falls. Kris, Nolan and I loved that. Thomas wasn’t so sure.

But I wasn’t going to leave until I tackled a water slide. I told Kris and the kids they could pick any slide in the place for me. Naturally they chose the tallest one they had—the Killermajaro slide. According to the Water Safari website, it’s a 280-foot drop and you reach speeds up to 30 mph. That was a lot of fun, but it was a little bumpier than I expected and I was a little sore when it was over.

Day 3: It was mountain climbing day, and Thomas hiked up his first mountain. He’s been to the top of couple of mountains before, but with us carrying him all or part of the way. This was the first time he hiked all the way up under his own power—and he loved it! He was so proud of himself!

We climbed Rocky Mountain. It’s only about a half mile to the top. So it’s very easy for kids. Once at the summit, there is a beautiful view of Fourth Lake in the Fulton Chain Lakes (see picture above).

Later in the afternoon we took a ride with the Old Forge Lake Cruise Line. Our two-hour cruise started on Old Forge Pond made its way up the chain to Fourth Lake, the largest in the chain, and then back.

During the cruise, the captain invited both of the boys to come into the wheel house and take turns piloting the boat. They each left with a “junior captain certificate” that they thought was great.

Day 4: We took a ride on the Adirondack Scenic Railroad, which Thomas thought was terrific. Actually, as much as he loves trains, he was a little nervous about it at first. But he warmed up to it after a while.

After the train ride we had lunch and wandered around Old Forge doing a little shopping.

Day 5: It seems like on many of our vacations we feel like we stayed one day too many. We seriously considered leaving Thursday instead of Friday, but decided to tough it out.

On Thursday night we packed up as much as we could and went to bed.

We had beautiful weather for the whole trip. Then sometime around midnight it started raining. Kris and I woke up early and laid there awake. That’s when we noticed it changing from raining to pouring and water was coming in through the seams of the tent where the floor meets the walls.

So we backed the van right up to the tent. We put the kids in the van and had them eat their breakfast while Kris and I packed up the tent and whatever else was left. Then we hit the road. We were home by lunchtime.

It was a pretty successful trip. We all had a great time and I think everyone has returned with some great family memories.

In addition, like our trip to Silver Lake last year, I’ve also returned with facial hair—which I’ll keep as long as my wife continues to humor me.

Vacation time

We're heading out for our vacation this morning. For the next several days we'll be camping in the Adirondacks with no TV, no e-mail, no computer!

Don't worry. We'll survive just fine.

You'll get the full recap when we return.