Moffitt Beach Birthday Camping

 For the last few years one of Maddie's presents from Daddy and Momma has been a camping trip on her birthday weekend. We went to Moffitt Beach last year and enjoyed it so much we went back there again this year! We arrived on Friday afternoon and left Sunday morning. Site 236--best camping spot yet!

We moved the picnic table so we could all see the view while eating. Course this meant we were on a tilt but we didn't mind!

Maddie got right into her sketchbook and the mallards came to see what was up!

The tent! And the tripod at the ready.

Momma knitting by the fire with Daddy keeping her company.

The fire master!

View from our campsite looking southwest.

View southeast.

View straight ahead!

Bri making Friday night's dinner of pasta with sausage and spinach.

Not a bad dinner time view!

Trying out the pie iron again. We need to work on that! Better recipes....

Momma's dish washing set up.

As usual the sleep on Friday night was not so good. We always sleep better the second night. Brian and I heard barred owls and the loon that night and thought we might've heard some coyotes or wolves but it was brief and hard to tell. We were up at about 7:00 on Saturday morning and it was beautiful across the lake!

The fog hovering was so pretty! Maddie got better shots than I did!

Little Owl at work!

The mallards coming to visit! It is obvious that other campers feed them. All they got at our site was a lecture from Ranger Maddie on not taking food from campers!

The lecture did not seem to phase them in the least.

We went to town for the apple festival and the butterflies were all over these flowers by the parking lot!

Painted Ladies and a Monarch

This is by the entrance to the campground and butterflies were all over here too!

Mostly painted ladies.

The weather was unusually warm for September. Maddie was able to wade then wished she had brought her bathing suit!

Another painted lady! I think we must've dropped some maple syrup or sugar at breakfast.

This was an excellent dead tree with moss and mushrooms!

All I could think of was hobbits.....

I believe this is a British Soldier. I found it near the water spigot.

Maddie giving her lecture...ducks not listening! They did quack at her a few times though...probably sassing back!

We had a great time! The campsite had a buffer on both sides and no one across the road. The view was spectacular! In addition no one had dogs that continually barked or bratty children carrying on every minute. There was a LOT of snoring at night though. In fact Maddie and I had a bit of a moment on our way to the bathroom on Sunday morning about 3am. There were warnings all over the place including a verbal one when we checked in that they are having extreme trouble with bears this year. As in "Don't leave your food out EVER. LOCK your cooler in the car at all times! I MEAN IT!". So this was at the front of our mind most of the time. We don't usually leave any food out as its just a call for chipmunks, squirrels and passing whatever so it didn't really upset our normal routine but the warnings were so dire! As we walked down the road to the bathroom there was this growling type sound and both of us stopped dead. Maddie says "The bear! Momma!" then we both realized it was snoring from one of the tents!! I wonder how many other people had that same thought on their way to the bathroom in a hazy, foggy sleep ridden brain! Oh boy..a good story for years to come. It was a good couple of days...we all wish we had a couple more to spend but work and school are calling so its back to the grind tomorrow!!