Pinecrest Lake

A week of every summer of my childhood was spent camping with my family and Grandma Vivian at Pinecrest Lake.  Last week we ventured back to the setting of my happiest childhood memories for a trip with my parents.

I haven't been back since leaving for college (so it's been - gulp - 17ish years).  It is exactly the same as when I left.  Exactly.the.same.  It smells like brown sugar, maple syrup, vanilla and pine trees.  The general store's aisles are still crowded with a little bit of everything.  Swimming out to the buoys is still a thrill.  I'm not even going to try to capture with words how special this place is to me, and how magical it is that my memory of it matches reality.

And now, the photo bomb:

We spent every day at the lake.  We swam to the buoys, walked down to the snack shack for soft serve, played in the rocky sand, people watched (and let's be honest : it wasn't the relaxing, read a stack of books and rest kind of vacation in this stage of life, but I'm sure I'll miss the wrangling days in ten years).  

 

 

We skipped the camping and stayed in a rustic townhouse cabin.  This was our backyard. We roasted marshmallows, read and explored.

Vivian's campfire birthday cake had a little run-in with warm weather and when I went to serve it, found the top layer slid off.  (I can laugh about it now.)  Vivian was still delighted with it because it was chocolate and tasted good.

My sweet parents stayed with Luke while he napped one morning, and I took Vivian and Vince on a partial hike around the lake.  I daydreamed about lakeside cabins and we explored little lake coves.

We rented a party boat one afternoon and drove out to King's Lounge and Dolphin Cove (my family named these spots when I was little).  It was a million kinds of awesome and stressful all at once (littles on a boat is not relaxing).

 

  

Vivian and I stole away to the campground one morning so I could show her the 'C Loop' where we camped when I was little.  We sat on a rock and read some books and ate trail mix by campsites I spent many happy days in as a child.

Once the kids were asleep on our last night, Vince and I stole away to the Steam Donkey (Pinecrest's one little restaurant) for a glass of wine on the patio.  We star and satellite gazed. (I saw some of the biggest, brightest falling stars of my life!)

 

I literally cannot wait to go back.