Campfire!

Rebecca came out to visit this afternoon while Cathy was at the mall shopping with a new friend. That gave us some time to chat with Rebecca and catch up on what's been happening in her life. She's got a new position as a software product manager at the company she works for. She's also the mother of a freshman in high school, with all the drama that entails. Between her job and family, she doesn't have much time for herself. She's wondering about the possibility of going back to school and pursuing a different career.

At 4:30 p.m. she left to go pick up Cathy at the mall and stop by the grocery store for some graham crackers and marshmallows. You can see where this is going. Ken bought a bundle of firewood at the office. When Cathy arrived, she and Ken collected some kindling and Cathy built the fire.

We had chili, coleslaw, and cornbread for dinner (Cathy doesn't eat chili, but she had eaten at the mall). We watched the movie Up! which Ken had recorded on his laptop. It's one of Cathy's favorites, and we were looking forward to watching it again too.

Afterwards Cathy lit the fire, which burned brightly in the large, well designed fire ring. We had all the fixings for s'mores laid out. I was too impatient to wait for the fire to die down to coals, so my first marshmallow didn't get hot in the center, even though I nearly burned my hands toasting it. While we sat and watched the fire and cooked marshmallows, Cathy was texting her friends and her Uncle Jeff. She played a YouTube clip from Betelgeuse. She definitely belongs to the "hyper connected" generation!

After our company left we walked around the campground. We definitely have more neighbors now, which is easy to see by the locations of the cheerful campfires. We counted maybe eleven campsites occupied.