Homemade pizza

Camping fever

The moment we arrived at the PaddleBrave campground on Saturday, the place was swarmed with people waiting to get into the river. The staff was overwhelmed with the crowd and we're asked to check into the campsite first and do the paperwork later. As we drove along the path looking for our camp site, we were once again intimidated by the sight of it was packed with campers and trailers. The first thought flashed by was this ain't a relaxing vacation I had in mind. We were a little turned off by the camp site is relatively small and closed to each other. It took us a while to put up the tarp over our tent as the trees are way too far away from each other. Thanks god that we did not give it up as a thunderstorm was awaiting for us on the second night.

After settling everything down, we hiked through the pristine woodlands along the Mason Tract, which running parallel to the Au Sable River, a mecca of fly fishing trout stream.
Back to the campsite, we couldn't wait digging into our dinner and making some s'mores.
The next morning, we headed right to the river after having a hearty breakfast. We were rather ambitious chosing the longest 5-hours canoe trip which started right off the campground, floated through the heart of the Mason Tract and ended at Smith Bridge.
This stretch of river was shallow and flowed at a steady pace. The weather was hot and humid, staying around 90F. We jumped out of the canoe to chill off in the water occassionally. Basking in the sun, we paddled and paddled. We were so toasted and our arms were sored, yet Elle had not kept her mouth shut for a minute. The moment we spotted Smith Bridge the take-out location, we felt blessed and relieved.
It's really nice that we were dropped off right in front of our camping site. The crowd had left the campground and it looked so empty and quiet on a Sunday. We wandered around the campground and ran into the owner serveral times. Elle enjoyed chit-chatting with the owner and wanted to go see him again and again, acting totally like an "uncle stalker".

The Au Sable river is flowing through our campground and there was a very nice walkway to stroll along or sit by to watch the canoes float by. Wagging our toes inside the water, Elle greated the canoeists as they passed by.
Past midnight, the thunderstorm started rolling in. The tent was illuminated with flashes of lightnings, followed by echoing booms of thunder. We could tell Elle was awaken by the thunderstorm as she buried herself and shaking under the sleeping bag. Not long after, the wind howling and the rain pouring down, beating on our tent. Elle wondered if little willies (the portable toilet closed by our tent) got blown away.

Fruit of labor

Basil is the earliest harvest from our garden, followed by snow peas. We're so excited to pick the greens from our garden and cook the meals out of them.

We have bountiful of basils that we try to use it in almost every dishes we could imagine. We stir-fried green beans with basils, put basil in beef hash, tofu, hainan chicken, pizza and pasta. Having basils in every single meals for a week straight makes us really sicken of it.

"Mom, it tastes like the freshest basil in the world!", that's our little one's compliment.

Power outage

The severe thunderstorm wiped out the power in many areas, including our neighborhood. According to the Consumer Energey webstie, our power was estimated to take more than one week to be restored. We scrambled to get ice, cooler and lantern wondering how we would make it through the first night without power.

Elle and I went cycling to beat the hot humid weather while Hin was cooking our dinner on the grill. By the time we came back from cycling, we're overjoyed the power was back. What a relief!

Wizard of Oz

Off we went to see the wizard, stepping into pages of an interactive exhibit based on the book "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz at KVCC museum.

One Summer Saturday

Picking blueberry in the morning. Blueberries are our favorite summertime fruit!

In the afternoon, we fired up the grill bbqing some porkies. Elle looked so silly chewing the ribs.
Our hydrangea is blooming. Bundle of blossoms.
Water fight began between the father and daughter. Even though the father cheated with a water hose, the little one was fighting back fearless.