There was an excellent turn out for Dan’s backcountry camping trip this year. The setup was similar to last year’s. We camped on Stratton Lake and made day trips to High Falls.

Chris was not able to join us but Luisa stepped in plus Trev brought a friend. I was pleased to put all the kids in one canoe while Luisa and I paddled with most of the equipment.

The first couple of days the boys still required a lot of help handling the canoe. On the way in we ended up tying their canoe to ours in catamaran style and pulling them. The following days they required help when the wind pushed their canoe to the opposite shore. On the way back though, they passed with flying colours. They paddled with strength, planned their trip carefully and got to the destination first.

Every year there is too much of some animal. Mosquitos, snakes and chipmunks have all had their turns. This year was all about frogs. There were frogs everywhere!

The funniest line of the trip was on the first day just after we landed at our campsite. We were greeted by a young couple from the neighbouring site. The boy had cut himself chopping wood (expert backcountry tip – don’t bring a hatchet, saw will do) and they did not have bandages. While we were helping them out the girl looked at our party and asked if we were a summer camp – no, we just had children!

During this trip to Croatia we visited many new-to-us places and concluded with some old favourites.

Gorski Kotar has been my favourite for the longest time, but usually we just buzz through it on our way to the coast. This year we made Begovo Razdolje our base for four days. The hills were the perfect place to hide form the massive heat wave. We ate wild strawberries for breakfast and rode up and down twisty logging roads. We climbed up to Bjelolasica and Samarske Stjene. We climbed down to source of Kupa and visited Lokvarka Cave.

For the coastal part of our vacation, we went to Tribunj. In Tribunj we swam, climbed rocks, caught sea creatures and walked a lot. We took a trip to NP Kornati and to Krka falls.

Zagreb is always fun. Markus was excited about climbing the Lotrscak tower, but did not want to go all the way up. Next time… Trevor enjoyed the density of the city and argued that Kanata would be more efficient if people lived in apartment buildings. Owen enjoyed a game of chess at the 80’s museum.

We went on some pretty neat trips this summer so let’s start with May and our visit to Connecticut. Nona has been wanting to take us to Groton for a while and we finally managed to get out there.

We spent a lot of time at the Mystic Seaport Museum. Trevor found his inner sailor.

At the beach Owen found the most crabs.

After the dark wooden interior of the whaling ship, Nautilus, the first nuclear submarine was quite a contrast. Markus was scared to go below deck at first but the interest kept him going.

And, of course, the aquarium.

What an amazing trip!