Plus we wanted to introduce Hyde to the country, and let me tell you, he was in HEAVEN. He moped about the apartment for two solid days after we came back. And I can't say that I blamed him....
The cabins were gorgeous. They felt more like little apartments in the woods... comfy living room, two bedrooms, fully stocked kitchen (with a diswasher!). Since we had the pup, we were given the "Dogwood", or Cabin 5, which had a dog theme. Plus it was the handicapped equipped cabin, so our shower was HUGE and had a place to sit down!
No country kitchen is complete without a bouquet of wildflowers on the table...
Right outside of the cabin we were provided with a small grill, a picnic table and a fire pit-- we made a fire every night. S'mores are the taste of my childhood. The woods around the cabin were beautiful, with lots of fallen pine that made excellent, crackly fires.
Hyde immediately took to the whole experience, carefully marking his territory all around the cabin before settling down into guard dog position.
He also regulated dinners on the picnic table, carefully ensuring to clean up any scraps that happened to fall on the ground.
Hyde helped Deb with the grilling, doing important sniffing and watchful pacing as she cooked.
We had several amazing meals, but two really stick out to me. Flatbread pizzas on the grill:
Turkey burgers:
The guard dog sitting at attention. The ears just kill me.
Supervising fire activities.
We went into the historic village of Boalsburg, PA (the birthplace of Memorial Day!), enjoying cute little shops, the awesome farmer's market and drinking with locals at the local watering hole, Duffy's Tavern. On the way there, we saw this on the highway:
Good advice, I think!
Creepy statue in Boalsburg commemorating the first Memorial Day.
Next to the cabin was a recreation area, with a golf course, go-karts, a batting cage, a picnic area and a great little pond with a walking path all around it. We walked around the pond several times a day, and tried to get Hyde to jump in, but he never did.
Time slowed down here, and I spent a lot of time outside reading, writing, watching my surroundings. It was incredibly restorative.
I even started to smile more...
We took a hike in the nearby state park-- Deb and Hyde had a lot of fun on the trail, jogging around the rocks and jumping over fallen logs.
We hiked around a gorgeous bog, surrounded by dense rhododendron.
Oh, yeah, and we defaced some state property as well.
Happy girlfriends.
We came back from the hike to a great dinner (turkey burgers on the grill) and Deb spent some time teaching Hyde to "leave it"-- he doesn't look happy about this!
Dinner on the grill, a bottle of wine, the sun starting to set...
Gathering firewood, I became enraptured by the sunset.
Can you blame me?
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