Oh for the love of god!

Ah, so last weekend the lab took its annual camping trip. Oh the fun that was had by all. We all gang together and drive out to Murphy's Point Provincial Park, about an hour and a half from Ottawa. The route out happens to run through Smith's Falls, where there happens to be the Hershey's Chocolate Factory... that's trouble in the making. We stop every year to get chocolate for smores (and for face stuffing too). This year we were late heading out, so the chocolate factory had to wait till the return trip, but stop we did!! The phrase "kid in a candy store" comes to mind...

Camping itself was the usual mix of lab antics and tricks. There was hiking (by some), swimming (by others), and lots of fun and food and drinking (also only for some). What was really cool is that we caught the beginnings of the Perseid meteor shower! On the first night some of us went stargazing (horray for a big truck bed to relax in!!) but the lights from the camp fire and flashlights kept blinding us. So we wandered away from the site a bit, to an access road. The shooting stars were amazing!! I think I held the record for the least that night at 7. Falling stars aside, the stars that stayed up in the sky were also just beautiful. I often forget, sitting on my back step in the city, just how many stars are out there. But lying out under a clear sky away from the city and its lights, you can see everything. The trick becomes finding those familar constelations from the city, where out in the country they are buried behind hundreds of others.

So, there were 4 of us, lying in the middle of an access road, technically off our camp site with beer and other assorted drinks, and guess who breaks up the party? A ranger. He was so young!! Couldn't have been more than a year out of college (or maybe even highschool!). We got busted for having open alcohol off site (we honestly hadn't even thought of that). But the Fireball and sangria had lids and they were closed when he got there, so we only really lost about a third of a beer. His favourite expression during our... chat... was "oh for the love of god". He said it like 10 times in the 2 minutes that we were talking. That and he didn't think we were being terribly classy (his words!!). Apparently, when drinking at provincial parks, its more civilized to drink your cheap cinnamon whisky out of a glass than straight from the bottle. What we were all thinking is that, no, that would not be a good idea, since then it would be open and we'd have had to pour it out!!!

So, many bug bites, but thankfully no sunburn later, we head home. We got really lucky with the weather... it rained on our way out, but cleared up once we got there! Then saturday was mostly clear. Sunday morning had more rain, but it cleared up by the time we got packing the truck. The only thing that would have made this trip any better would have been the company of my hubby, who was stuck at work.

Not much to update in the knitting news... I have so many things started, and so little finished! Socks (for me, others for Katie), a sweater, hat, baby stuff... a giant stash that requires taming. So much to do, so little time. And the new semester looms. Best get back at it.