Is It Summer Yet?

Growing up we didn't have a lot of money for vacations around the world like some of my friends, we didn't even have enough money to go and visit family that lived in other provinces, basically we could only afford to go camping for summer vacation.  Now those of you reading this might think camping isn't a cheap activity and if you are thinking about doing it now you are probably right, but I am talking 25-35 years ago when you could still camp in places for less than $40 a night and didn't need power and a shower to go camping.  

After moving to Alberta in 1979 we started camping at this place called Archie Hogg's, a man owned a piece land along the river and he allowed people to camp out there for free.  We used to go there for weeks every summer tire tubing down the river, hanging out and having fun with our family and friends and just wasting the summer away.  Archie Hogg's was the best place to camp, it was still close to home but far enough away that it felt like another world.  After the man passed away they made it into a provincal park and of course you had to pay to camp there but it was still one of the cheapest places in town.  In the early 90s the river flooded in the area and caused many changes to the camping areas as a lot of sites were washed away in the flood, but the camp ground remained open.  I took my children to camp there in 1996.

At this time my oldest son actually didn't mind camping...that will change in a hurry.  I haven't been to this campground since 1997 and from what I have been told it is still there and thriving, it was a beautiful peace of paradise and I have many memories from that place.  In 1988 we went camping with my then brother's girlfriend and her family, it was at this camping trip that I found out she was pregnant...a year later she would be killed in a car accident.  

In 1989 I moved to Nova Scotia and my husband and I really didn't do the vacation thing either, to us summers were for camping, and although camping was different in Nova Scotia...you kind of had to drive long distances to get to camp grounds and they were quite expensive we went camping as often as we could.  In 1993 we went camping at the New Minas Basin, this place is a beautiful area which boasts some of the highest tides in the world, and when the tides were out you had to walk quite a way to get to the water.As anyone who has been to Nova Scotia knows it as a beautiful place and no matter where you went camping you would find beauty. 

After returning to Alberta 1996 my camping days were pretty few and far between, I took the kids a couple of times to Archie Hogg's but other than that I never really went too far.  After my parents moved to Brooks we would go to a place called Emerson Bridge but it wasn't quite the same, you couldn't get to the water and if you could you wouldn't want to it was quite a deep and quick river that wasn't the place for kids to play.  So I didn't camp much...then I moved to Cold Lake with my husband and my camping days returned.  My husband being a retired Air Force member has access to a camp ground that you pay a set amount and can camp all year round..well if you can get in there in the winter.  

We go out on Mother's Day and start tidying up our campsite for the summer.  We haven't been in the last couple of years because of other commitments in the summer but this is our vacation.  We go out on the weekends when we can, we take our vacation time and spend it at the lake, this is what summer is all about to us, whether it is stacking fire wood...

sitting around the fire...

just hanging out...

reading a good book...

swimming...

laying on the beach...

or burying your head in the sand...

...our summer's are spent at the lake, hanging out together.  Yes one day I would love to go to Paris, Rome or Sydney, or take the kids to Disneyland but hanging out together at the lake making every day memories is the place I love the most...

So right now we are waiting for summer...waiting for the ice to melt, waiting for the sun to shine, waiting for the rain to stop so we can go to the lake and enjoy our time together just hanging out...