although it took more than half the day on saturday to actually leave township ... once we got our caravan (the brothers gart, tara, rob thomas, and myself)going things were looking good. the site was surrounded by trees and you could barely see the other sites around it. we pitched the tent and unloaded and began our camping experience. we got ourselves some puerto rican food from this little shop in vineland somewhere and while heading back to the site a typhoon of sorts blew through soaking everything.

we sat in the tent and played cranium. sadly team chelsea-pat was beaten by one question by team tara-rob-mike. if only pat knew what a bench press was ...

sunday was the best day ive had in a long time. tara and mike woke us up to jumping on us and yelling ... it was pleasant. breakfast was a complete disaster when we decided to make omlets ... but none of us knew exactly how an omlet is made ... and pat decided to make a ham stake on the grill ... but also didnt know the preperation involved.

pat's uncle came by during breakfast bringing tidings and a paddle boat. we took that sucker out and after pushing eachother in and getting yelled at by the lifeguard (apparantly swimming in the lake outside the designated "swimming area" is not allowed ...)we headed back only to discover that we were covered in these little shrimpy lake creatures. man we took the longest shower ever after that (at least the boys did ... us girls were finished first)

upon returning to the campsite we decided since we had bought so much food that we should just spend the rest of the day making food and eating. which was also another excuse to play with fire and the like. we made so much pasta ... apparantly we thought we would somehow need 2 entire boxes of pasta to feed 5 people ... obviously none of us cook much.

we decided to take a power nap then, and after a whipping battle in the tent we finally fell asleep for a few hours.

then we made more food.

that night we decided to go to this clearing by the lake and look at the stars. it was amazing ... we saw a few sattelites and i saw so many shooting stars. the clouds rolled in at 12 and we decided to head back. that whole night was spent being abolutly crazy, me and tara letting our confort zones DROP and breaking laws as me, pat, tara, and mike decided to shun sleeping and have a "party". too bad rob decided to sleep through all of this (his tummy hurt). at about 2 or 3 we decided to wake up rob in an interesting fashion ... and ended up staying in the tent. of course we were loud and you could hear our voices traveling through the trees ... but we definitly didnt think much of our neighbors. at about 4 everyone settled down and we decided to get some sleep because we had to be up again at 8. me and pat retrieted to our corner of the tent. we started talking and then it turned into a conversation taht lasted hours until we noticed that it was getting lighter. it was awesome. i love when me and pat get talking because the hours go by amazingly fast. and he is the least judgemental person i know, i can talk to him about anything.

that morning, after returning from the bathroom tara told us that she heard two ladies arguing and one saying "yeah well i got no sleep becuase of some damn kids who stayed up all night" wae couldnt stop laughing.

we packed up the tent and all the crap and headed out, only to stop a few miles away becuase pat's brake lights were out. after fooling around with some "plunger" thingy, nothing was fixed and we decided to just drive anyway.

the weekend was the most amazing way to end the summer that i can think of, and i think that the fact that it almost didnt happen made it that much better.

so long sweet summer