Life in the Bristolwood

My entries to this blog might be a tad out of sequence of when they actually happened, but that is okay…

We left home on Thursday afternoon and went camping at Allegany State Park. We camped there last summer, and it is a fabulous destination for those who love camping.  It isn’t that far from our home but is just so wonderful. Because we went after the Labor Day holiday,  the number of campers has greatly decreased and made it all the more fun.

Some of the highlights were that my brother, Randy, took off Thursday and Friday to join us. He tented with Ben and Randy has boundless energy….he and the kids would gather in the tent to watch videos and play games until late. The kids love Uncle Randy so much! He is like a big kid with all his energy and good fun!

I managed to sneak off one morning when that “oh-so-terrific” sunlight was pouring out its goodness and bathing everything with glowing golden light! The following are from those shots…

On Saturday night, I prepared a spaghetti and meatball meal….LOVE those crockery cookers!!! My parents joined us. My mother brought a basic salad, with tons of goodies in small dishes. The end result was that everyone was able to choose what they liked, just like a portable salad bar! Mom also brought a loaf of good Italian bread to go with the spaghetti. I tried to bake a cake in the teeny-tiny oven, but could only bake one layer at a time. One layer was fine and the other….well…it kinda “bit the dust”.  Thinking quickly, I spread cherry pie filling over the chocolate layer, then topped it off with whipped cream! Pseudo Black Forest Cake! It was pretty good.

 When my parents left, Mark and I escorted them to the park exit. On our way back, we caught sight of eyes in the headlights. We pulled off the road and were treated to the cutest little family of seven “bandits”! It must have been a mother raccoon and her six “children”. We finally left when they came in closer to the truck!

Today, we went kayaking on Cuba Lake,  located about 30 miles east of the park. We pulled up our tents and camper and headed to the lake where we spent a little more than an hour paddling. The lake is small, but so pretty; we had  fun on the lake, then stopped at one of our favorite spots for pizza and wings.

We parted ways with Randy at about 3:30 and Randy headed west, while we went east. It was hard saying our good-byes after having such a fun mini-vacation!