Eleven Mile

Finally at the end of June we were able to go camping...our first this season.  It was a last minute trip, but we were so excited to go.  T had a Monday off of work, so we went up Sunday night and planned on staying until Tuesday afternoon so he could get to work that night.  Of course when we planned it a few days earlier, the weather was suppose to be great...hot and sunny.  We were worried about the wind as it always seems to be really windy at 11 Mile Reservoir. Last time we went there, we broke a tent pole, my hubby sliced his thumb open trying to get the tent down, and we left a day earlier than planned....so it wasn't the best experience.  Although, T ended up catching his biggest fish ever that trip.....

*2007....look how young T is, but first Pike caught and still the biggest so far*

Anyway, we were hoping for the best, but the outlook posted at the lake was not very promising.  It was beautiful when we got up there though.  So we set up camp and started dinner so the guys could go fish before the sun went down.

 *K was so great to help with dinner*

We started a fire when it got dark and made peach cobbler in a dutch oven....it was so yummy.  We decided to wait to do the s'mores the next night since it was late and we were full. 

It was so nice when we went to bed that night....we should have known.  The wind started blowing a few hours later and blew ALL NIGHT!  It was not just a gentle breeze or even a mild wind.  It blew so hard that I worried our tents would fall down and all our chairs around the fire would be gone by morning.  No one slept very much that night, but we were excited for the next day....and hopeful!  When we got up the next morning, this is what we saw....

T's tent had blown down in the middle of the night and he just slept with it like that.....see the bump int he middle..that is T still asleep inside. Thank goodness we didn't have Duke with us, cuz he would have ended up in our tent instead and that would have been even worse.

It was still windy the next morning and chilly in fact.  But we had rented a boat for the morning and couldn't wait to get out on the lake.  We were hopeful that it would get warmer as the rain was not suppose to come until afternoon....well after we would be off the lake.  But the sky looked dark and gloomy and we were not prepared for how cold it really would be out in the middle of the lake.

We set out to go to the other side of the lake.....only because we could see that the sun was shining over there.  It took us a long time to get there are we were trolling and fishing as we went.  The girls were freezing and were trying all that they could to get warm......do you see three bodies there?

My feel were frozen as flip flops were not the way to go that morning.  We were so bummed as M and I were planning on getting some nice tans as the boys fished.  After we got to the other side of the lake, the sun was out and the girls came alive again and actually came out from under cover to enjoy it.

The boys had a fabulous day fishing.  It was quite funny as say my hubby would get a fish on the line, I would leave the steering of the boat.....M would take over that as I went for the other fishing line that was still out, so that T could get the net and catch the fish as my hubby would reel it in.  And it would go like that the whole morning......one would catch one....then the other........6 in all by the time the morning was over.  There was one time that my hubby had a fish on the line so T handed his line to me as he went to help his dad.  The second I got the line and started to reel it in, I caught a fish.  So T hurried back over to me and M hurried to help her dad just as he lost the fish off his line...but T got his.  It was just funny how it went back and forth like that.  T was hoping to catch the most, but they actually ended up even at the end.

 *Here is our campsite from the water...that is the one with the red tents ....look how choppy the water is*

By the time we got back to camp, it was time for lunch and a decision....it was suppose to rain and be even more windy than it was the night before.  Do we chance it and stay or just go home.  Everyone decided that it was a miserable night not sleeping and the girls were so cold with the wind coming in through the mesh roof during the night.  I was quite bummed...it seems that the last several camping trips have ended up being only one night...I want to go on long camping trips.  So, after lunch we packed up everything and headed home.  We ended up cooking our foil dinners on the grill that night, but the s'mores still haven't happened.  One of these days we need to buy a fire pit for our back yard.

All in all, it was a fun trip....we love getting out on the lake in a boat.  Not sure if we will chance 11 Mile again anytime soon...we are 2 for 2 there when it comes to bad wind.  The ranger said it was so calm the day before we got there.....figures that would be our luck.  But it was fun to be together and have another adventure.