I love camping! I love laying in the cool dirt outside watching all the people and critters. I love snuggling by Mom and Dad when they watch a movie at night. I love chasing squirrels when they are nosing in Dad’s hiking boots. I love long walks and hanging out at the beach. The water is pretty great and I’m getting to be quite a swimmer. I love getting little snacks from Mom and Dad when they are at lunch. I love all the attention I’m getting from other people. But I especially love hanging out all the time with Mom and Dad.
Camping isn’t easy though. It’s non-stop until bedtime. Lucky for me, Mom and Dad go to sleep early (when the sun is still up), so while I am tired and have no sass, I am getting enough sleep to keep going.
Today was a new adventure. As usual, we were early risers and nearly the first campers to get moving. We were the first family at the north beach area. Mom and Dad made me kayak along the canoe trail. I sat in the back of Dad’s boat. I didn’t jump out of the boat all day but I let them know I was displeased. I got yelled at for whining but I kept up a constant protest until we turned around and Dad put the leash on me. Uh, oh. Pushed too far. Though, I don’t think it was fair that I had to wear my lifejacket the entire time but they took theirs off while we were on the river trail. They seemed to really enjoy paddling without the life jackets. On second thought, maybe I would have been too nervous to take mine off. The water was shallow but I was anxious enough already during most of the trip.
Don’t tell them, but I had fun. It was a beautiful river trail. We were the first boat on the trail, so it was also peaceful. The only sounds were the birds and my constant protests. Interesting, how Mom kept paddling ahead of us, like she didn’t want to hear me. Dad followed a duck with 12 babies. At one point, we stopped at a beach. I had fun running around and playing in the water. There were no waves so I was quite brave. Then, the scariest thing happened. Mom started paddling away from the beach and she tipped over. She wasn’t far and I had to help her. Dad was trying to get me into the kayak, but I jumped into the water and swam to Mom. I leaned on her shoulder when I caught up with her. Apparently, it was funny because Mom and Dad were laughing as Dad waded into the water to pull Mom and the boat to shore. It was a good thing I was there to help.
Another time we stopped, Dad put me on the shore and I was worried about what was going on. Mom was still in her kayak by the shore and she invited me into the front part of the kayak with her (you should have seen the muddy footprints I left on her- heehee). Dad then jumped into the water. Whoa! He was gone a little bit -Mom had me or I would have helped him too- and then he came up with a canoe paddle he found. A neat souvenir. Boy, was he cold and the water was gross too.
We paddled back out of the river trail and into the lake. By this time, I was tired of kayaking so I laid down. The trip back across part of the lake was really bumpy. I didn’t look up but it seemed to take longer to cross the lake and I was really bumped around a lot.
We went to lunch and I got another bite of chicken. Now, we are back at the campsite. I just got in trouble for not responding to Mom’s call and am being punished by hanging out in the Casita with Dad while Mom is outside with the squirrels. This sucks. Maybe if I finish this blog, they’ll let me outside again.
