I'll remember this one

Memorial Day weekend hit the spot. We went camping at North Higgins lake with Brian and Kirsten, as well as Chris B. and his pooch Floyd (and no, that’s not some stoner-induced “Dark Side Of The Moon” nonsense). The weather was ideal, even when it stormed like mad starting in the middle of the night Sunday and going strong as we broke camp Sunday morning at about 9 a.m. Thankfully, this bad boy kept us dry as a bone. I’ll buy only Coleman products because they fucking rule.

I didn’t get many shots of the campers, as we spent most of our time eating, drinking and bullshitting, which, I believe, is the entire reason behind camping in the first place. You do all of this driving, take an hour to set up camp and another hour to break it down, endure bugs, other campers and the lack of your creature comforts of home to just simply chill, and to not think about shit, and to do whatever you want with your spare time. I did, however, manage a shot of this pretty girl.

After a night of excessive everything Friday night, Kerry and I drove to her aunt and cousins place on Torch Lake where we spent the day Saturday. There, we enjoyed a lovely tour of the grounds and a wholesome and nourishing lunch, courtesy of Cousin Matt, of homemade guacamole, turkey sandwiches (guac, cucumbers, turkey and provolone on sourdough), as well as taste of the local delicacy, crackers and smoked whitefish pate. We relaxed lakeside for a part of the afternoon before they let us use their showers (I love camping. I hate not being able to shower or jump in a lake) and we headed back to camp for more of the same. This was across the path from our campsites.

And these two were busying themselves quite a bit in it

We took a few small walks down by the lake. On the way, this guy was just lying there.

He had some bomb root structure.

One cool thing about camping is camping equipment. There is an array of gizmos and neat shit people prefer and often utilize, from hand-held hatchets to backpacks, matchstick holders, sandwich makers, you name it. Chris had this cool food prep setup, but I didn’t want to bug him while he was using it. It was this small pot and a propane tank about the size of an empty paper towel holder. He had this small plate thing and made gado gado, which turned out to be so goddamn good, it hard to believe he made it while sitting down on the ground. But I was especially impressed with Kirsten’s tacklebox. Instead of Rapalas, bobbers and lines, however, she has assorted goods one may need around the campsite, from matches to spices.

Kerry and I left our fellow campers Sunday to drive home, avoid the traffic and get some things done around the house. I put together this bomb outdoor fire pit Heate gave to us as house-warming. We brought a little bit of our camping spirit back to Royal Oak, where we had a fire in the backyard and drank beer from our cooler on the back deck.