We spent Fourth of July weekend at the best campground – Hillside Springs. There is no website and, sorry, you can’t make a reservation.
It’s my brother’s farm, in the town where we grew up. He installed camper hookups behind one of the barns, complete with lights, a fire pit, and river views. The cattle are our neighbors while camping.
Bonus: My sister-in-law runs a little bakery stand out of one of the out buildings. Cinnamon rolls for breakfast? Sure. Cheesecake to take home with us? Yes.
The cost: Dave mowed a pasture (which was more fun than actual work) and I pruned tomatoes in the garden. (Also fun.)
Following the camping trip, we welcomed a week of visitors. My sister and my brother-in-law stopped at our house on their way home to Indianapolis from their own camping trip adventure in the UP. My mom came over too and we had a nice dinner looking out over the marina.
They left and then dear friends from seminary came with their three girls! Joel and Melissa and I became besties our senior year of sem. Our other friend (Pastor) Paige and I took the train out to Montana, oh, three times or so, where they lived at the time, to visit and attending a continuing education event in Glacier NP.
Their three girls are no longer toddlers (!) and they requested some time in the kitchen – they wanted to make cake pops and French macarons with ‘Auntie’ Lindsay. Done. We packed a lot of other things into essentially a day and a half – a stop at the lighthouse, a beer garden, the Sprecher Brewery Taproom, Culver’s, and Aldi. (Aldi? They’d heard of this mystical store but don’t have them out west!) We had fun catching up like it hadn’t been nine years.
Flower garden update: Snapdragons snapping. Yarrow yarrowing. Globe amaranth globing. Dahlias: still to come. They don’t normally bloom until August. Anticipating their arrival!
there's no place like gnome. 
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