Base Camp

Life is approaching normal now as we settle into our routine here in Philly. We have organized and scrubbed our house until is as sparkly clean as a 120 year-old-house can be. We found a new pediatrician for the girls. The best part is we can walk around the corner to see her. We had Wharton families over for dinner two evenings this week to reconnect after the summer. The girls and I are back to exploring the city during the week. And, Kate started preschool. I am just working with her at home. But her best friend, Makenna, and her Mom, Asialene come over to our place and we do our homespun version of preschool. Fortunately, we have smart, motivated little ones, so it isn’t too hard to get them excited about learning. In fact, it is just fun to see them lap it up as quickly as you can send information their way.

The girls and I walked up the street this week to get a prescription filled at our local pharmacy. One of the things I love about Philly is the locally owned corner stores. Instead of going to WalMart and waiting for 45 minutes for the three pharmacists on duty to count out 20 pills, we walked two blocks up the street and entered a little corner store. The pharmacist came out and shook my hand and introduced himself. (That was after he had called me a few minutes before to tell me he had received a prescription for us from the doctor but was only open until 6 and then he would be out of town for a week.) He gave the girls each a lollipop and we spent a few minutes exploring the two-isle store while he entered all of our information into his computer system. I am always amazed at the inventory these stores fit into their tiny spaces. I have made several trips out to the suburbs lately to go to Target for random things we needed for our house. As I looked around Ellis’s Pharmacy I found almost everything I had driven so far to buy and I few things I couldn’t find in the expanse of the superstore like spray air for our computer. I left the pharmacy feeling like I was part of a community rather than a nameless, faceless means to a credit card number. In many ways our modern world is becoming terribly impersonal. I can’t tell you how refreshing it was to escape that for a few minutes. Who would have thought a trip to the pharmacy could be so great?

Josh and I have a list of things we would like to do this year before we melt into the suburban life of Dallas. One of those items was going to see New England foliage. This weekend was peak season, so we packed up the car and headed off for a camping trip in the Adirondacks. Kate summed it up best Saturday night as we were getting ready for bed, “We are going to freeze our freckles off!” she said despairingly. It was cold, there is no doubt about it, but it was also beautiful! Leaving later than planned, as usual, we pulled into a campground around 2 a.m. Friday night, or Saturday morning rather. Josh and I set up the tent while the girls were warm and toasty in the car. The next morning we had a good laugh when we saw that we pitched our tent approximately 6 inches from the road, not just the road, but a three way intersection of roads, and less than an inch from the camp site marker. As we ate breakfast Saturday we all started getting colder and colder until we called in quits and jumped in the car so we could turn on the heater. We drove on beautiful roads weaving among lakes and rivers and meandering through quaint towns. The leaves were beautiful.

The grand adventure of the day was a hike to the summit of Whiteface Mountain. Fortunately you can drive almost to the top of the mountain and then take a super short hike up to the peak. The hike is along a well groomed path with hand rails and stairs cut into the rocks, but the girls thought they were amazing “little mountain goats” “hiking clear up to the sky!” You wouldn’t think a quarter mile hike up a footpath could be a highlight of your life until you are a parent watching the pure joy on the face of your children; then you wouldn’t want to be anywhere else in the world. After our hike we headed back toward the campground. We passed a bed & breakfast that had a sign out front that said, Beer & Brats, 2-4 p.m. Passing on the beer, we did a fine job of polishing off the brats, sauerkraut, potato salad, and apple strudel all homemade by the German proprietor. It was only about 6 o’clock when we pulled back into the campground, but it was dusk and the temperature was dropping. We let the girls fish in the lake for a few minutes and then we piled in the tent for a pajama party. We wrapped ourselves up in our sleeping bags with a headlamp hanging from the ceiling and played Old Maid and Go Fish. The girls giggled with delight as we passed the Old Maid around and Jane played her first independent hand of Go Fish. Then we snuggled down and I read a couple chapters of Little House in the Big Woods before we all drifted off to sleep.

Sunday morning we had breakfast in the tent. When it is that cold outside rules about food in the tent have to be bent. After a few seconds of bundled exploring outside, the girls played in the car while Josh and I broke camp. We took the scenic way home and listened to podcasts of conference in the car. The leaves were vibrant, the sky was blue, and the car was warm! All in all, it was a pretty nice conference weekend--great family time.

Before the girls came back to Philadelphia I bought the them sea bracelets, which are supposed to prevent car sickness. We call them our “magic bracelets” but it seems we’ll have to work on the magic. Both girls got sick at some point. Kate gets the super trooper award, however. She called out, “Oh dear, I’m going to puke!” and then held it until I got the ziplock bag in place.

Packing and unpacking the car with all of our camping equipment, I felt very out of place on the streets of Philadelphia. I don’t think you see tents, sleeping bags, camp chairs, and Kelty packs very often around here. I felt very odd making trip after trip across the street to pack up the car. We also ran into a predicament when we needed to dry out our tent. There is not a lot of yard space for such things. When I came downstairs after getting the girls down, Josh had set up the tent in our living room and the rain fly was covering the table and dish cupboard. Necessity is the mother of invention, I suppose. There were only a few inches of space to spare on either side. We can now say that we have a six man living room!