Thursday, August 5, 2010

Day 4 – Deep into the heart of the Adirondacks

We stayed at yogi bear park till about noon time before we departed to Lake Durant.  The 1 hour drive was not that bad as we winded thru the Adirondacks, around mountains, up and down hills.

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We had never stayed at Lake Durant state park.  But it is just out of Blue Mountain and we wanted to visit Buttermilk falls.  We figured we would try it.  Well our camper is the biggest you would want to get in there!  Its a true tent and pop up campground. 

Our site was backwards, we had the back of the camper facing the fire

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The roadway is like a rollercoaster but a great workout to walk!  We were very out of place as most people were really “Roughing it”.  Oh well at least we can say we went there! Box checked!

Tyler and David were able to do some fishing, while Emma and I went for a walk.

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The campground has a great view of Blue Mountain

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Tyler and walked a few of the trails

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He was very excited to climb this big rock all by himself (about 7 times)

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The kids favorite part was the very friendly chipmunks..

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We didn’t even get the toys out because all the kids did was sit and wait for him to return to fed him more peanuts.  He would take 3 peanuts at a time and he made about 100 trips.  I think its safe to say the Szareks supplied a good portion of his winter feast!

Even my oldest got into playing with Chippy:

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The fine art of fishing for chipmunks (don't worry no hooks were involved)

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Have you ever seen an Adirondack Zebra?  They are rare but we found one!

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notice the cheeks full of nuts!

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Mommy wanted to hike in to see buttermilk falls.  It was very nice!  there were some people swimming in the falls and climbing the rocks.  so of course so did tyler

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I can climb rocks too:

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The one thing about Lake Durant is it reminded David and I of what it was like camping before we had kids and were spoiled by our camper.  We use to cook everything on the fire, breakfast, lunch and dinner.  We were only in the camper/tent to sleep.  So we cooked hot dogs and pizzas over the fire, Tyler's first time.

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It was great after the kids went to bed to sit by the fire, and listen to silent only interrupted by the loon across the lake!  We have been at private campgrounds all summer and had forgotten how dark the state parks are at night.  It was so relaxing.

In the morning Tyler and i walked down to the lake.  It was so peaceful as a light rain danced on the lake.  The fog was starting to lift from the mountain and it all mixed with smell of my coffee…peacefulness!  For that moment i felt on vacation…only to be interrupted by “Mom, I am getting wet i want to go back to the camper!”  Yes i think its time for us to have an adults only weekend!!

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Thankfully raincoats and a hungry chippy kept the kids busy during the packing up process.  Then we started the long journey back filled with “are we home yet?” ………

1 comment:

Jenny said...

You've got some gorgeous pictures for scrapbooking! Glad someone else knows how to fish for chipmunks.