Traveling

Both my children, their spouses, and their kids are leaving this week for a camping trip in Colorado.   They will be camping  together at Molas Lake--a beautiful jewel of a place between Silverton and Durango where we spent memorable weeks several summers from the early 80s to the mid-90s.

Both families have bought large pop-up campers for this trip--much more spacious than the one they grew up camping in.  Our little pop up was not air conditioned, but I used to love lying in bed at night looking out at different mountains, lakes, and rivers.  I remember the smells of frying just-caught fish and sweet rolls from a local bakery, and a highlight was meeting our friends, the Kots, from Cape Cod--with whom we returned to Molas Lake years later.

The year our house-under-construction burned and Will was in first grade, we left the scene of the fire and all the rubble and bought a pop up camper.  In it, we spent 10 weeks on the road exploring 26 states.  We went as far north as Lake Louise in Canada and found available campsites in every state from California to Vermont.

I'm not drawn to camping as much now as I used to be.  I like comfortable rooms in motels better.  But I'm glad we had that stage of our life while the kids were growing up, and I'm happy that the next generation of our family will be together for two weeks playing by the beautiful Molas Lake that holds such a mountain of memories for us all.

Day and her boys start out tomorrow, Day pulling the large pop up to Denver to spend a few days with friends.  Tom will join them on Thursday, and Will's family will leave on Friday.