Baxter State Park 2011

I've been going to Baxter almost every 4th of July weekend since I was two, and my parents decided to go camping. They thought all the green parts of the map would be campable, but most of it turned out to be paper mill land, and so they drove all the way to northern Maine until they hit Baxter, and we've been returning ever since.

Last time we got cabins, but we never make reservations, since the only way to make one is to go there, and early. The reservations can only start being made in January. Togo all the way up there in the winter to wait and then drive back is just not realistic. Sometimes it means moving around a lot. This time we got a lean-to for a couple of days.

A thing about lean-to's: they are great when its raining, but when its not, they mean lots of bugs. Mosquitoes, gnats, horse flies. Tent+lean-to combination works well though, though our tent barely fit.

I don't know why, but this time we were simply exhausted most of the time we were there. Kept waking up in the middle of the night, but by evening we would wake up...

The people in the lean-to next to us seemed to eat, drink and collect wood all day, but they went to bed pretty early and got up early too. They spent part of the days building a raised rock-bridge in the river in front of us to get to all the dead logs across it. It was funny watching them walk across it when they were drunk, attempting to keep balance and not fall in. They kept a crate full of beer in the river as well (very effective cooling mechanism, though Mama said it was a standard way, but I was impressed.) They tried opening wine bottles by putting them in shoes and slamming them against trees. When Папа offered a bottle opener they said "No thankyou! we are having fun!"
We came home on the 4th, and watched Independence Day :P.

Yosef wasn't with us, which was weird. He left to Israel with Бабушка (she lives there), as a barmitzvah-esk present, except that he isn't actually having any ceremony.  He was complaining that this summer was going to be like all others, so we sent him off. He hasn't really been in contact, except for the first night when he was being plagued by jetlag. Hopefully he's enjoying himself now.

(Shimon pouring sweetened condensed milk over buckwheat in the morning)