on camping and canoeing...

this weekend jacques and i, along with seven other friends went camping and canoeing in mongo, IN. i've never heard of mongo before. i knew, going into the weekend, that we would be "roughing" it. no electricity, no biggie. we stayed in tents...although i did bring an air mattress, cooked food over an open fire, and paid little attention to personal appearance (no blow-dryer, minimal makeup...i'm quite partial too my mascara, and clothing to suit the very hot weather). and it was lovely. we drove up to trading post, canoe, kayak and campground after work on friday and set up camp. after an enjoyable evening around the fire, decompressing from the work week, and a not-so-enjoyable night's rest (our neighbors were obnoxiously loud and crazy until 5am) we awoke, made eggs, sausage and oatmeal for breakfast, put on our water shoes and gear and headed to the pigeon river to embark on our 13 mile canoe trip.

an average time of completing the trip is about 4.5 hours. jacques and i took 5 hours, due to the consistent half hour stops of those in our group. after a while we got ahead a bit and were just about to stop and wait up for the group when the never ending corridor of lily pads came upon us. no place to pull over and stop. no banks, no nothin'. so we (at times me) just paddled on, against the wind and made it through to the end of the trip. it was quite an enjoyable excursion. the outdoors, the exercise, the company, the challenge. i would do it again tomorrow...or next weekend :)

after the rest of the group got back and cleaned up a bit, we ate dinner, played corn hole, and chatted the night away. enjoyable weekend for sure. when jacques and i were driving back home, he looked over and said to me, "thanks for roughing it with me this weekend, babe." and to that i should have said, "thanks for not minding that i still wanted to wear mascara." haha.

all in all, it was a great weekend. a much needed weekend away from the everyday.

and here's to a week that is hopefully just as great!
cheers!
michelle

p.s. sorry for the lack of photographic evidence of the weekend. i really did not want to bring my only good piece of digital equipment on the trip with me for fear of water damage. maybe next time, if i have a "back up."