CT - Mystic KOA

After a great time at Nickerson, we decided to plan one more trip out for 2011.  Looking at the calendar, the next available weekend was Thanksgiving!  So we decided to book a spot at the KOA in Mystic for the long holiday weekend.  The KOA is right off of 95, which is a pro and a con - super close for getting to area stuff to do, but highway noise is almost constant.  We used the furnace at night anyway, so we had plenty of white noise to sleep to :)

We were in site A2.  Not exactly our idea of an ideal site since it is so open and pretty much a parking lot setup, but since there were only a handful of other campers it was just fine.  Plus, it was right across from the playground...

where we lost Theo to for the majority of the weekend!  There were a couple other families camping and staying in the cottages, so T had some buds to play with.  He was over there on that jumping pillow within about 5 minutes of our arrival.

Kansas got his own playground too, and tried the hoop a few times.  Speaking of Kansas...remember that great setup where he was sleeping on the dinette made into a bed?  Well, apparently it is hard to understand the difference between that and the dinette set up as a table:

And one evening Kevin and I were outside making dinner and T and Kansas were inside the camper...we looked in this window and saw all of Kansas - he was standing on the table!  I guess we need to work on re-learning our boundaries (but that was an awfully funny sight!)

We were treated to some beautiful sunsets!

And we had a great visit to the Mashantucket Pequot Museum.  Here is Theo looking out the observation tower, 185 feet up.

We also visited Mystic Seaport twice - once for a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at Latitude 41, and once to poke around the seaport, check on the restoration status of the Charles Morgan and enjoy the beautiful weather.

All good things must come to an end: the final campfire of 2011...time to tuck the camper away until spring and look forward to more fun adventures in 2012!

New Kitchen Faucet

I prefer a single lever faucet for several reasons, but especially in the camper for water conservation when dry camping...your hand can be busy soaping and scrubbing and your forearm can flip the water on and off.  I found this faucet at IKEA (it is named Lagan and was all of $20)  I especially liked that it was for a single hole so I could install a soap dispenser...one less thing to clutter up the small amount of counter space!  Also, I mounted it in the leftmost hole so there is no problem with reach whatsoever in either sink bowl.

Closet Shelves

We tried hanging fabric shelves, which worked fine but wasted a lot of space behind them in the front closets on either side of our bed.  I found wire locker shelves (in dark pink, oh well) at Big Lots for $3 each.

MA - Nickerson State Park

We had a fantastic long weekend at the Cape with a bunch of friends from DogandTrailer.com!  The weather was unseasonably warm and simply spectacular!  Who would think we would be at the beach on October 9th!

We were on site 72 in area 4 - it was a HUGE site and we will definitely book this one again!

Just to give some perspective - here's the view of the picnic table in the same spot as the above shot, from out of the camper door...you can see the fire pit and the two chairs near it in the distance.

We woke up to this every morning!   That's Cliff Pond through the trees.

This is our new family member, Kansas.  This was his first trip and he's a great little camper!

The dinette is a great spot for Kansas' bed.  Plus, he can hop over into our bed when we wants to...and hop back when he's feeling squished!

Here are the boys on Nauset Light Beach.  The weather was amazing!

Theo "fell in", as he often does when kayaking!  We went back the next day with our bathing suits on and he was a happy camper.

And here's Kansas, doing his best seal imitation.  We did see real ones as well out in the water!

No pics from the pot luck or site crawl...too busy then enjoying all of the great food and great company!  We also didn't get any pics of Theo and his buds, since they were usually zipping by on their bikes - too fast for me to catch with the camera :)

ME - Acadia National Park

We had a fabulous time at Acadia National Park, attending the 2nd annual Dog & Trailer/Outbackers Acadia rally.  We stayed at Smuggler's Den Campground, which was right on Mt. Desert Island and their property is adjacent to some of the NP property - great spot and the only campground I've ever been at with live lobsters in the camp store (and cooking instructions and pots to borrow!)

I forgot to snap a shot of our site until when we were packing up.  We were in site #86, OK site but the sewer connection was a bit higher than the site, which made it not ideal.  We were close to the group so it was a good spot, but not my favorite.

We became members of the Cadillac Mountain Sunrise Club along with a few other brave D&T friends: the Egregg and DHDB families.  It was worth getting up at o'dark thirty, that's for sure!

Take a look... 

We had a lot of fun hiking and biking.  No pics from our ride on the carriage paths, but lots of hiking pics:

This is on the Beech Cliff trail.  Echo Lake in the background, and after the hike we spent a while at the beach you can kind of see in the background.

The Beech Cliff trail has several ladders, which Theo loved.

And Kevin too!

We made it to the top!

Theo making friends with a seagull at Thunder Hole.

Theo on the Ladder Trail up to Dorr Mountain.

Note the clean teeth, this is right before we headed into/through big patches of blueberries on either side of the trail - yum!

We made it to the summit of Dorr Mountain! 

So windy up there that the signpost was knocked over.

We parked the car somewhere down there...

Time to climb back down.

We also went on a great whale watching boat cruise.  We saw two species of whales, dolphins, porpoises (yes, they're different, but now I can't remember in what ways other than the dolphins were definitely more playful and even jumped out of the water.)  Not everyone on the cruise did so well in the seasickness department, including Theo.  He held up better than others, but after some complaints I got him some dramamine from the galley of the boat...and he spent the rest of the cruise like this:

yep, completely out.  He said he had a great snooze!

On our way back into Bar Harbor.  Some cool boats in the harbor, including that one with 4 masts in the distance in this pic.

We also had a great time hanging out with friends and T had a blast swimming in the pool at the campground, playing with friends, and doing kid stuff.  We took a fun tour of the Atlantic Brewing Company (and tasting...and buying...)  And we had a fantastic lobster dinner with the group...very tasty and I didn't have to get all freaked out cooking them myself!

NY - Saugerties/Woodstock KOA

We had a fantastic "grown-ups only" weekend in the Catskills...main goal: The Warrior Dash with our friends Kimberly and Tom.  We stayed at the KOA in our camper and it proved to be fun and pretty convenient.  Kimberly and Tom didn't even complain about the bunk accomodations - I think we all fit pretty well!

We were on site #55 which was a pullthrough.  It had a decent amount of wooded space by the fire ring and was fairly private for a pullthrough. 

Chillin' by the fire after a great meal at The Dutch Ale House

Clean Warriors before the race - ready for action!

And wet, dirty Warriors after the race...it was a blast!

We got cleaned up and put on our freebie race t-shirts and enjoyed our reward beers :)

NH - Chocorua Camping Village

We were at site #79, which was a pull through.  Nice for arrival after dark in the rain (memo to self - traffic near Boston and going north on a Friday in the summer is prone to traffic!), but this site was not terribly private for eating at the picnic table or hanging by the fire.  This shot was taken from the campground road.  Still, if I knew we were arriving after dark again, I'd choose a pull through and take the chance for convenience...we really weren't at the site much anyway!

 Theo finally got to bring his friend Baden along!  The boys had a great time, and really got along amazingly well all weekend.  A+ for the first friend-along weekend!

We all did the ropes course at a place called Monkey Trunks up the road from the campground.  It was a fantasticly fun time, and lots of courage-building and problem-solving!  And no worries, we were all harnessed in and had  helmets on and went through the safety class first. 

 Theo and Kevin on the part that we all thought was the hardest!

And Theo on the part that we all though was going to be the hardest, but was actually easy!

And after all the climbing you get to zip line down!  Woo Hoo!  Here is Theo on the zip line:

And the boys had a great time splashing and swimming in the river/pond.  There was a pool too, but they both preferred the fresh water with the sand to play with and the minnows to chase.

Cushion Covers

Although I was a little bit better with the diamond pattern on the cushions in the Visa than I was with the floral in the Aliner, I still decided to cover it.  It was actually starting to show signs of fraying on one edge already, so I figured I better get it done sooner than later.

I went in search of some sort of plain tan or brown, which I found...but when I saw the red gingham-ish fabric that reminded me of the shirts the staff at Fort Wilderness wears, I knew I had to use it somewhere!