Georges Pond

This post is long overdue (seems to be the story of my life lately), but better late than never, right? I'm sure most of you have seen my photos from my week of vacation at our camp on Georges Pond in Franklin, Maine. I've included some of the photos here, but I also wanted to write some thoughts about the place and the week. We've been coming to Georges Pond for nearly my entire life and I am incredibly grateful to have spent my childhood summers here. As we were sitting around the dinner table Saturday night, Mom, Marc and I enjoyed a little trip down memory lane as we shared stories about summers at camp - Megan is a real trooper for listening to us for hours!

Here are some of my favorite memories:
* Taking baths in the lake with Marc and Amanda (my friend Amanda used to spend every summer at camp with us) - we originally had no shower or bathtub in our camp, so my mom would send us into the lake in our bathing suits with a bar of Ivory soap and a bottle of PertPlus shampoo/conditioner. We would swim out to the raft and lather up and jump in, over and over again. And the best part was when we would lather up the dock with the soap and shampoo and then run and slide off it. It was so fun!
* The time we came back from Bar Harbor and there was a bat in the camp - we all stayed outside, in terror, while my dad climbed into the rafters and went after the bat with a canoe paddle
* How our weeks at camp were the only time Mom would let us have sugar cereal, so it was a really big deal!
* Going up to Cadillac Mountain in Bar Harbor for sunset and always talking about going up for sunrise someday, but never actually getting up early enough to do it (I still haven't seen sunrise at Cadillac!)
* The week I spent at camp with Marc and Nicole and how Nicole and I would spend every morning kayaking around the lake and picking blueberries on the island - so peaceful and relaxing

Here is a very incomplete list of things I love about Georges Pond:
* The view of the lake from the deck of our camp
* The colors of the sun as it sets behind the island
* The smell of the inside of our camp - it just smells like camp and is comforting
* The sound of the loons calling to each other across the lake - there were 8 loons this summer!
* How each of us always calls out when we spot a loon and everyone goes to look for it and what a big deal it is for us, no matter what our age
* Sitting on the reading tree and looking out over the lake

And this summer in particular I loved:
* Watching Ralph try to catch ducks in the lake, and fail miserably every time
* Kayaking with Mom and pointing out the camps that we like, and would love to own some day
* Eating yummy corn and green beans from the farmstand in Ellsworth
* Playing ongoing games of Scrabble with Mom and being proud of ourselves for using bigger and better words as the week progressed
* Watching Ralph be so excited to swim in the lake
* The "dumb duck" that Mom and I fed one day - he didn't even notice the bread until we threw it at his head - not very smart!
* Swimming on the one day that was warm and feeling like a little kid again