Still shaking the tiredness out of our bones after paddling down the Restigouche, Charlotte made it quite well known that she’d spent enough time with adults on the river, and now needed the company of her friends.
“When are we going to the playground?”
“Can Lila come to our house for a sleepover?”
“I’m bored!”
Feeling a little itchy to get out of the house again myself and go bush, this time with some peace and quiet for myself, after an otherwise full-paced trip to New Brunswick, I decided camping was the way to handle this one.
We left the dishes from last night’s supper stacked in the kitchen sink, loaded up the truck, invited Charlotte’s friend, Lila to come with us, and headed straight back out to the campground at Porters Lake Provincial Park.
Of course, on the way, we had to make a few strategic stops to shop for “supplies” (aka. Junk Food). Taking a leaf out of Deb’s book, we also stopped into the Dollar Store to stock up on marshmallows, acrylic paints, stretched canvasses, paint brushes, and other little crafts to keep the kids occupied.
Charlotte also packed a bag of board games and was dying to play beer pong – albeit with apple juice – ever since I brought that home with me from a ‘Fishing Trip’ on Charlotte Lake (that’s another story).
Instead, it was agreed that there was enough going on with the girls helping with setting up the tent, erecting their camp cots, and finding their way around the campsite so they were familiar with where everything was. Beer pong would just have to wait until next time.
With the campsite established, took ourselves off to the lakes edge for a quick dip, just to wash away the fatigue of constructing Taj-ma-Coleman Tent to the satisfaction of two very particular young ladies.
Back at camp for the evening, I set to work getting supper prepared on the gas BBQ I had stolen from our back deck, and the girls got stuck into their painting and their crafts.
During the gourmet dinner service, we had a great visit from Jody & Tanya, who I feel like I haven’t seen in ages, followed by Lila’s Dad, Kevin, who drove out for a quiet brew, a good yarn, and s’more, and popcorn cracked over the open fire. It was great to be outside, poking the embers, and enjoying the relaxed atmosphere of camp life.
The only real bummer from the day was when Lila saw her Dad and decided she wanted to go home with him – a perfectly reasonable expectation of a nine-year-old, at 11 pm, camping in a strange place with only a couple of well-placed glow sticks to fend off the creatures of the night.
Tig was completely bummed, of course, but after a few disappointed tears, contented herself with the fact that she would finally get to play beer pong the following morning – a promise I simply had to keep, because come day break, she would be stuck with only her boring old man for company.
Rest up, Charlotte. It's game on at first light, kiddo!
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