We go to Hermit Island with friends we've known since grade school. Friends Rod met in college have joined in. This year my brother and his wife came too. All in all we had 7 families. Fourteen adults and 18 kids. We'd head to the beach every day and the kids would mix and hang out with different kids all day. Sometimes they take on the babysitting role of taking care of the younger kids. Piggybacking them to the next event or helping them with sand castles. Othertimes the big kids would be out in the waves surfing them and the little ones would be at the edge of the surf imitating them. Oftentimes they all got involved in sand play but for themselves and not just for the little ones. They make large elaborate castles and battle with the surf to keep the water from knocking down their sand sculptures. Some of the adults wore wetsuits and joined the kids that were body surfing. Others braved the frigid Maine waters in their bathing suits. We explored the islands hiking trails, different beaches and dirt paths. We started drinking beer on the beach at noon. My brother brought his corn hole game and the kids and adults played on the beach all day. PB & J's for 32 were the norm for lunch. One day our friend brought his cookstove to the beach and made hotdogs for everyone. What a treat! And he was in heaven cooking on the beach. The kids take a break in the afternoon for ice cream at the Kelp shed. This is a life we could get used to.
One night every year we head to Sunset Lagoon after dinner. We bring drinks to toast a great camping trip, the kids play wheelbarrow, and make pyramids. We take a lot of pictures. Of the setting sun, the kids playing, and the beautiful beach. When the sun sets we don't forget to turn the lens and take pictures of our families in that gorgeous sunset lighting. After I took one group of photos of my friend's family he turned to me and joked that he'll take package B. A lot of the photos end up on Christmas cards. Smiling faces, gorgeous lighting, great memories.
Back in camp we had 5 families that were near each other. We move two families onto one site and make one site our "party" site. We set up an elaborate tarp system to keep us dry in case of rain. Move an extra picnic table to the site for seating. We put all the camp chairs around the fire and set up a ridiculous number of cookstoves (we do love our coffee!) and organize a huge number of crates filled with food and camping supplies. We share the cooking and cleaning. If you are up first you get the coffee going and start to make food for the hungry kids as they wake up. Pancakes, eggs in a nest, oatmeal, muffins, fruit, bacon. We stick around camp until we are cleaned up from breakfast and everyone is dressed for the beach and a few mom's have thrown snacks and 5 loaves of bread along with PB & J in a bag. The guys make sure the beer cooler is packed. The kids ride in one big pickup truck down to the beach. Usually they sing loudly on the way. The day is spent on the beach and then at night we come back to camp for showers and dinner and campfires and s'mores. We divide up dinner duty because cooking for this crowd can be overwhelming. This year we planned simple meals that could be cooked ahead of time. We've decided raw meat in camp is not our friend. We had bbq the first night, pizza the second, pasta with various sauces the third. On the last night we always end with a lobster and clam bake. We cook corn over the fire and roast potatoes to go along with it. For the kids that don't like lobsters we make hotdogs over the fire.
Our friend's brother and sister who are part of our daytime crew camp near each other and do meals together. They have been coming here since they were kids with their parents and a bunch of friends. And now they are sharing this special place with all of us.
We couldn't imagine our Summer without this trip. Our girls have it on our summer bucket list and count down to it all summer. One of the oldest kids in our group heads off to college after next summer and she made us promise we would plan our Hermit Island trip when she could come. This is a place where children stay children. They don't care about fashion or cell phones because there is no service. They have marshmallow gun wars, hang out in hammocks, play cards around a picnic table, body surf at the beach and make sand castles. They bike everywhere and run through the woods. At night they sleep soundly because they are tired from all the fresh air and activity! When we leave we are all excited to head home to our warm showers and comfy beds but we are also sad to leave all this fun behind. As my friend Angie said "I love this place, I just want to soak up every bit of it while I'm here!"
-K (pictures taken by friends and family as well!)
No comments:
Post a Comment