Core Four Adventures Unplugged.

I wanted to be able to add posts about topics other than our Paradise North.  I settled on perhaps the boring "Core Four Adventures, Unplugged  The younger half of the Core Four wanted to name the blog:   "Adventures of the Braithwaite's Inside Job, Adventures of Bob and the Braithwaites, and a bunch of other ridiculous names.  We'll keep it "Core Four Adventures, Unplugged" for now.

Columbus Day Weekend Peak foliage. Friday It is an experience to walk to your outhouse, the only shelter unaffected by weather during your two week hiatus, chaperoned by your husband because you are nervous to walk the short path in the woods, in the dark, alone. The path is dark illuminated only by your headlight.  It is bumpy with rocks and roots.  You trust that when you unzip the shelter spiders, bats, or rodents will not jump out at you.  You hope there is dry toilet paper and that when you lift the seat up a snake will not come out and give you a surprise "HELLO!". The shelter is temporary, but in truth you wonder if you really need a more permanent structure.  This Cabela’s Delux  Shower Tent seems to have withstood weather that the other structures at the campsite could not.  This of course could be more a result of the area being sheltered but it is a testament to the design of it.  It shelter's  Scott's outhouse design. We leave a tent light in there

9.21.18: Friday Scott and I spent the day packing, organizing, preparing for our trip up North. The plan was to pick up the girls at 2:15 at school.  12 needed to take a Spanish quiz.  That would give her enough time. We left at 2:30. We arrive 6:30 pm.  Just before sunset.  But we couldn’t tell.  There was cloud cover. Lake Willoughby had white caps on the North side.  That was a first sight for us.  It looked very cold. It is not an easy task arriving at night.  We need to carry everything up the hill.  We need head lamps.  We need to know there is a camp to hike to as well. Hinton Hill Road was foggy, really foggy. We were driving into a low lying cloud.  Can we see the camp above Sentinel Rock Park?  Nope. Way too foggy. We turned into the road.  Would the pesky gate be open?  No. Of course not.  We got through anyway. We parked at the path. Scott and I planned to have us all walk up since the light was so low.  11 asked for Dad to check to make sure there was a camp to walk

Earlier this summer when we had just pitched the tent we have here, our dad (Scott) had told us to clear the brush. We didn’t know what the word meant so we used kid reasoning. Brush sounded a lot like bush. And bush is made out of plant so we would have to weed the area in 1-2 hours. We thought he was kidding because the campsite looked like this (see pictures below). Then he gave us takes and told us this will help! We tried using the rakes but it didn’t help. Very confused, we told him it wasn’t working so he told us to use our hands.                      After an hour of working we told dad that we were half  way done. Then he cane over to inspect and we quote “I don’t see any progress, what did you do.” Obviously upset we told what did he mean, we had been weeding for over an hour. “Weeding” he said, “What do you mean weeding, I asked you to clear the brush.” Then what’s the brush we cried. Dad told us that it was the little sticks covering the ground! We were so upset, our reason

Friday 9/7/18 Theodore arrived in CT at 1:50 pm.  Justin was 10 minutes early.  Packed and ready to go  Scott, Theodore, and I headed to pick up Gwen and Natalia from school.  On Highway by 3:00 pm  No traffic. Yay! Tradion for kids: eating snacks and watching movies.  Tomb Raider, Pirates of the Caribbean.  So far fighting has only been over who gets to eat whose candy. Goal: get to camp by dark and to not step in the path of any animals or hunters.  It is bear season. Dinner: cold cuts by the fire. 10:00 pm. We made it. Walked up in the dark with headlamps, big packs, food, water.  Took many breaks but made it. Scott built a nice fire thanks to dry birch bark.  We ate cold cuts, sausage, chocolate, grapes, and bourbon (for Scott and I). Theo and Gwen gave the Outhouse a thumbs up. Before heading off to bed, kids played UNO in their new character onesie PJs.