April 16, 2025
We have made it a month since we took off from Newark back on March 16th! It has gone by very quickly which I guess is a good sign that we are enjoying the trip. Moving around more definitely keeps things interesting and exciting. Especially since we don’t exactly know all the details of each place after planning so much so each place brings a little mystery.
Today was our first full day and we had great weather so we wanted to spend some time outside, really the only option here! We started the day with a dip in the hot tub which had successfully heated up overnight. Me and the boys went in for the first “people soup” dip while Kayleen slept since she had a late night teaching session last night. She joined us on the next one an hour later.
We went to the park near our house and the big swing stole the show. We slowly got braver and braver on how high I would push the kids up the tire mound before releasing them. We eventually made it to the top in the afternoon. Lenny is thrilled to yell “I’m going to throw up” as he flies through the air.
During our quest to go has high as possible on the swing we found a snake skin on one of the tires. This remained in my head each time I pushed one of the boys up the tire mound. Ollie took it back to the tent to show Kayleen and sneakily tried to hide it in her bed sheets. His intentions were not well hidden and he was told some large number of days he would go without desert if he did that.
We had walked to the farm damn earlier in the day to take out a canoe with the boys. It ended up being a flat bottoms skiff which was a sturdier surprise. Along the walk we saw tons of large grasshoppers, some of which the boys said were “fighting”. On the boat Lenny was happy to be the coxswain and scream “stoke!” in no particular rhythm while Ollie looked for critters that would never appear.
We were all excited to come back to the same spot and try fishing with a guide from the farm a few hours later. The walk was about 15 minutes and Lenny complained a lot more the first time than on the return trip for fishing. Maybe it was because he was holding a fishing pole, maybe it was because the there was more shade & the temperature was dropping, or maybe it was Ollie and him asking me for endless stories about pets/animals.
Sadly we did not get even a nibble on our fishing trip. We fished with lures and were trying to catch black bass. The boys did get a lot of practice casting and we got to explore a macadamia nut farm at the end.
Just as on the walk there the boys, more so Ollie, were intent on hearing every pet/animal story I had. The more scary ones kept their interest, rabbit being eaten by another animal or a snake trying to eat his owner, but the one that most captured them was the escape, and eventual recovery, of my cockatiel, Tweety, when I was a kid.
We returned from our fishing attempt to find our camp had been raided by vervet monkeys. We had seen all the signs and warnings of this but thought we had properly secured our tent when we left. We learned that they have gotten quite good at breaking in and that putting sliding doors on the tents that can lock is coming soon because of their skill.
They stole a variety of things; bread, english muffins, biscuits, popcorn kernels, & chips. Unfortunately they also threw the kids home school math lesson candy all over so we had to toss it. This lead to Lenny and I making a run back to the camp store for replacement popcorn kernels, chips, and candy.
Throughout the rest of the evening we were discovering random items they left all about, inside and outside.
We got a very nice basket to braai (grill) but it ended up as a bit of a mess. Cooking over a wood fire is a skill I need to work on it seems. I think I needed to start the fire hour(s) before we wanted to cook so there was little to no flame and just a very large bed of hot coals. I’m not sure if I will be trying again anytime soon.
While I was roasting our dinner the boys called all the grandparents to chat about their day and tell them about the monkey robbery. Ollie and Lenny were pleased to confirm/retell the Tweety bird escape story I had told them today with grandma.
Anyway most of the food was either very crispy or eating a raw potato. Not our finest meal but we all had enough of some parts of it and then it was off to bed for our big day tomorrow.
