What Every Picnic Table Should Be...

What Every Picnic Table Should Be...

   Outdoor DIY Wine Cooler Idea

Found this idea on a blog and thought it was a pretty cool idea. Obviously this wouldn't work with weekend camping at a park as I think they may frown upon you customizing your table. This should be how every picnic table is made to start with. Who needs that middle board anyways? Aren't cold drinks always a better idea?

Here is the link to the blog

 

For a creative, convenient way to serve and chill wine at your next outdoor party, consider the wine gutter! This picnic table, designed by Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects, features a built-in galvanized steel gutter down the center of the table. Fill with ice and you have a bona fide wine cooler!


This would also work perfectly well for beer and any other beverage you'd like to keep cool on a warm day. If you're not the DIY kind, you can buy a gutter picnic table starting around $150.

2012 has begun...

So it's almost been a year since I last posted something on here.. a year that has been crazy for sure. Got a lot of camping done this year, tried some new places including New Hampshire which was beautiful but still very cold in May in the mountains.. I guess that is what outlet shopping is for, the whole reason I actually went :)

As for this year I am changing some things up a little bit and hope to try some new places that I haven't been. I have been looking for years at going to St Lawrence National Park and boating to the island to stay for the weekend with the bare minimum with me. The islands just look so beautiful and as most know I LOVE the Thousand Islands area, especially around Canada Day weekend when you can sit and just watch all the amazing boats going by and hear the cigarette boats coming from miles away..one of my favorite sounds in the world!

 St Lawrence National Park

The other place I want to try which my aunt had mentioned to me when I was back in high school and I look at it every year is Frotenac Provincial Park. Here is the link to the campsites that you have to hike or portage into with the pictures available to see under each cluster heading.

Frotenac Provincial Park

I also just looked at Ivy Lea and they have moved the booking to Feb, 28 instead of March 1st so I will be on the phone at 8:15am that day booking a good site and I just need to decide when to go....

On another note.. the new camping gear for this season should be hitting the stores soon. I did find myself creeping into the camping section at Canadian Tire on Saturday but as soon as I got to the aisle I had to turn back...way too much of a tease this far away!

Here are some pics from North Conway, New Hampshire..it was beautiful and there are lots of places to hike within a short drive. If staying and wanting to be in town stay at Saco River Campground, you can literally walk to the shops yet feel so far away and in tune with nature when you are there.

And here are some other randoms from last summer...

The Summer Seems So Short When You Start Booking Weekends For Camping...

It's March 1st. The day I have been waiting for to book the Canada Day long weekend at Ivy Lea Campground. So there I sat this morning with 2 computers beside each other, watching the website countdown to 8:15am when reservations begin. I was ready, logged in waiting for the seconds to go down and when it hit 8:15 I clicked reserve on site 105, my favorite, only to get the red message in my face. THIS SITE IS UNAVAILABLE. Luckily even though I was upset, I was prepared for this to happen and had my top 6 sites written down. I ended up getting site 106 beside the site 105 that I wanted. It works out ok as it has a pad on the site so I think we should have good luck with the trailer being level. I finished booking the site and for 3 nights it costs a whole lot more then it used to, and decided that I should look to see if my favorite was getting booked up for the rest of the summer. With some quick planning and my mental calendar of events I decided that we should go the first weekend in June. There was nothing planned for that weekend and guess what? We got site 105! Now I am happy that is 3 weekends out of the summer that are already booked for camping. I know one or two of the weekends will be spent at the cottage near Consecon on Lake Ontario so we only have to worry about the gas to get there.That only leaves a handful, maybe two, of weekends left in the season. How is it that the summer seems so short when you start booking weekends for camping?

Oh yes...30 Days until April 1st..hope this snow goes away soon and it starts warming up

Ivy Lea Campground - Thousand Islands

This is one of my favorite places to camp.The campground itself has changed a lot since the first time I went in early 2000's. I went to visit my Nana and fell in love with it right away. For the most part it is best if you can get a site along the water...but I say that for every campground! There are so many good things that I can say about this campground. The landscape alone is beautiful. The trees, the rocks, the water...the islands!! Depending on what area of the campground you are at you will get a completely different feel. If you are near the boat launch you are in a neat little cove with calm water, a small island and across from houses and cottages that make you wish you won the lottery. It's a relaxing area to camp in and is usually pretty quiet.
I camped in site 138 when I was younger, which is not waterfront, but is a huge site up on a hill. It's only good for tenting. If you go to the bottom of the hill you can sit and enjoy some sunshine with the sound of a small stream running around you. There are even some chipmunks that will get close enough to you to eat some of your salt and vinegar chips right out of your hand. Another peaceful thing you can do in this area is just sit on the boat dock, put your toes in the water and soak in the sun.
The site that I have spent most of my time in is site 84. It is close to the beach. Again another tent only site that you have to carry your things from the parked car, but not too far. This site is on a hill so they have built a wooden platform to pitch a tent on. I don't think a tent that is for more then 4 people would fit so this wouldn't be a good site if you are going with a group. The view from this site is spectacular! You can jump right in the St. Lawrence River right from your site. Beware it's deep and the current can get strong if you swim too far into the middle. From this site you are able to hear the bridge to Hill Island which continues to the US. The sound may seem odd at first, but to me this puts me to sleep like a baby! Just thinking about the sound of the transport trucks breaking on this bridge makes me happy. From the site you can see an island or two in the distance and you can see the boats. Everything from tour boats of the Thousand Islands, the loud engined cigarette boats and even wooden antique boats go through these waters. Bring some binoculars (or babe lookers) and you can be entertained for hours.
I've stayed at a few other sites in this park over the years but my favorite would have to be 106. I'm hoping we can get it for Canada Day long weekend this year. Other good sites in the campground if you are looking for good waterfront are: 105, 112, 117,118, 99, 144 and 145.
This campground is a close to a lot of fun things to do. You can take a tour of the 1000 Islands from Rockport or Gananoque. It's well worth it if you have never been. Remember your passport and take the cruise that stops at Bodlt Castle in New York. The story is sweet and it is great to explore the unfinished castle from the past. The pretzels they sell there are pretty yummy too! You can also go to Hill Island from the campground. You can drive or even better take the walk over the bridge. The view of the islands is worth it!


Ivy Lea Campground
Boldt Castle
Rockport Boat Cruises
1000 Islands Cruises - Gananoque

Here are some pics from over the last 3 years. Some of them were taken while there was still snow on the ground. We try and go in the end of winter on a nice day for a walk around..keeps us dreaming!
 
55 Days until Camping! 

Enjoy!

View from Site 84

Boldt Castle

Our tent on the platform. Site 84.

This past summer in site 99.

Beiber was about to get a fever!

A great campfire with the lights of the bridge behind.

The Bridge is build right through the park.

One of the three boat launches. This one by the beach.

Site 84 (in winter)

View of the nice area by the boat launch...so relaxing!

The water is the most beautiful color

From site 117

Cracker Barrel Breakfast

After talking about Cracker Barrel last night I thought I would give everyone an idea of what the pancake breakfast is like. They serve breakfast ALL DAY! The nice thing about this restaurant is when you first go in you go into a country store. They have tons of seasonal gifts, candy from the past, candles and lots of little gadgets. If the restaurant is busy and you need to wait for a table then you get a chance to look around. If not do it before you leave. You can even buy the Cracker Barrel pancake mix to take home with you. Most states have at least one cracker barrel close by. We go quite often to the one in Watertown and have also been to one outside of Boston, MA. From Ottawa it's about 2 hours driving to Watertown, so a bit far for just going to breakfast, but make a day of it and get some good shopping in while you are in town. Yummy!

http://www.crackerbarrel.com/

Buttermilk Pancakes with 100% Pure
Natural Syrup

What makes our pancakes so good? The secret is in the buttermilk. You see, buttermilk actually activates the mix so it rises higher for more tender, flavorful pancakes - just the way we
like them. Enjoy three pancakes, made from scratch with rich buttermilk and topped with real Butter. Served with a bottle of 100 % Pure Natural Syrup,
warmed up especially for you.

Buttermilk Pancakes with Fruit Toppings  Golden Delicious  Marion  Sweet  Montmorency  Apples  Blackberry  Peach  Cherry We have selected a collection of special fruit varieties to create our warm fruit toppings all prepared fresh daily in our kitchen. We hope you will agree these might just be some of the best fruit toppings you have ever tasted. Enjoy one today over three of our Buttermilk Pancakes. All topped with real whipped cream.

Momma's Pancake Breakfast®

Three Buttermilk Pancakes and Two Eggs* cooked to order
~with your choice of either~
Any Fruit Topping or 100 % Pure Natural Syrup
~and~
Choice of Smoked Sausage Patties, Turkey Sausage Patties or Thick-Sliced Bacon

60 Days until Camping...

Is it sad that I have a countdown on my laptop for April 1st? The first possible day that select parks would let me into a campground? It may still be snowing that day but it gives me something to look forward to. We went to Mexico January 4-11th and we counted down for over 100 days. It went fast, so fast that Mexico has come and gone and now I sit in the living room with the electric heater on, drying out my skin. Going to Mexico is a great way to get out of the cold for a week but I had myself convinced that it was July and I would come home and would be able to be in shorts and go without the dreaded winter coat!

I was wrong! It was so cold that when we landed my body went into shock. My lips chapped, I pretty much turned into an alligator as soon as the plane touched down in Toronto. We have had the coldest day on record this past week and it was not fun...at all. Every day my nostrils stuck together I had to think the cold will go away, the snow will melt, spring will come..and then camping!


I decided that I was going to look on Reserve America online. Kevin and I go to upstate New York every Civic holiday long weekend. We have gone to Wellesley State Park and last year we went to the wonderful Meacham Lake in the Adirondacks. When I was in Mexico I took a book with me, which I never read, and it had the campground map in it. We had walked the park and circled the best sites in the park with the best views. The nice thing about making camping reservations in the US is that you can do it up to a year ahead, so I decided it was time to look for our site. I started looking online only to realize that it was already booked up for that weekend!! It is almost 8 months away and every waterfront site was booked. The drive is a bit far with our trailer so I thought that it may be a good idea to look at a different campground. All of the campgrounds were out of waterfront sites for that weekend!

So this August we are going to go without the waterfront site, we are across the street so I am hoping we can still see the water from there. We are going to try Westcott Beach this year. It is close to Watertown, NY which means that one morning I will get to have Cracker Barrel for breakfast. For those of you who have not eaten there I suggest you go and get the pancakes!

So that is as far as I have gotten into this camping season. Reservations for Ivy Lea Campground (it is part of the Parks of the St Lawrence) starts on March 1. I know the sites quite well and will be online nice and early that day hopefully booking for Canada Day long weekend. This year the holiday falls on the Friday which is great...Now to take of the Thursday or the Monday...hmmmmmmm

I'm dreaming of it now....