Memorial Day is a day in which we remember all those who died in the service of our country. It also signifies the end of the school year and the beginning of summer. For us, the weekend was spent at Lake Lanier near Atlanta enjoying the "Chewning Extended Family Campout". The size of our group varied between 20 and 30 as visitors came for a short visit or joined us for a meal. 
We set up Thursday and joined MacKay (David's brother) and Jason (MacKay's brother-in-law) and a few other early arrivers. With no planned meals that evening everyone was on their own for dinner, and Todd joined us in the trailer for the ribs Lydia cooked and the mojitos he brought. Everything was great until a T-storm whipped the tarp off MacKay's kitchen area. We quickly corrected that situation because we could not afford to lose MacKay's kitchen. His kitchen is so well equipped that we cooked all our meals there. It is a bit unusual for a tent camper to have a kitchen large enough to cook and serve 30 people, but MacKay is prepared for everything! 
All day Friday more people arrived ,set up their tents, then joined the talking and drinking group. We all contributed to breakfasts and lunches and each family planned and cooked an evening meal. On Friday night we had beef and chicken fajitas, compliments of Mel, David, Dawn, and Brian. We ate shrimp and chicken kabobs on Saturday (Deckers and Roberts) and the traditional, all American hot dogs and burgers on Sunday night (Carrie, MacKay, Jason, and Amy). Several meals had cobblers cooked in Dutch ovens over a bed of charcoal. Needless to say, no one went hungry ... or thirsty, as "appropriate beverages" always accompanied the meals. 
The kids were in and out of the lake all day long, swimming, feeding the geese, skipping stones, and playing in the sand. The outside shower on our camper really got a workout! We had plenty of adults in the water to herd and supervise the water fun, however.
The rest of the adults hung out talking and relaxing. One day we received word that park rangers were inspecting camp sites since the campground was a no alcohol zone. You should have seen 10-15 adults scurrying about picking up bottles and cans and hiding them! The ranger didn't check on us, but we kept stuff out of sight the rest of the weekend.
The cove where we camped was alive with boats pulling tubes, jet skiis flying back and forth and an occasional sailboat gliding by. Fortunately all were far enough from our beach that we didn't have to worry about being run over.There was an island across from our site where mulitple houseboats were anchored. There is no overnight camping on the islands, but folks can anchor and spend the day on land and then sleep over on their boats. It was party time all weekend across the cove, just as it was on our side of the water! At night it was a lovely sight to look across and see the campfires and lanterns twinkling like fireflies in the darkness.
All too soon it was Monday and time to pack up and go home for all except us who decided to stay one more day. We helped the others sort and gather their stuff and kids and head home. By noon our camping area was empty and quiet. Lydia and I sat and watched the activities on the lake. In between I read a book and Lydia took a nap. As the sun moved closer to the horizon, the activities diminished, then stopped altogether. We had a meal of leftovers, a few glasses of wine, and went to bed early.
Tuesday morning the lake was still quiet, but we were busy packing our stuff. I decided to clean our awning before we left. This long overdue task took over an hour, but the awning looks like new. Lydia fixed lunch that we ate outside looking over the lake. All we saw was a boat of fishermen unlike the power boats. jet skiis, and houseboats that filled the lake on Monday. We left about 2pm for the short drive home and laundry duty. Stay tuned to hear about our camping trip with Olivia and Zoë in two weekends.
Humm, only one more day in paradise - maybe two or three may have been needed to 'unwind' some more!
ReplyDeletehumn dont want to be readerless,but this blog is old.....hehehe ,terry said to tell you to update it..
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