A-Camping We Will Go

We are about to embark on our annual camping trip to Sleeping Bear Dunes, this time with a two-day layover in beautiful Northport, Michigan at the vacation home of our friends Ann and Kevin. Ann and I met in high school, but that didn't stop us from becoming very good friends when we grew up. Ann (who I will now call "Laughing in Livonia") was also my very first follower of this blog and therefore has earned the honor of being my first guest chef. More on that on Wednesday when we return home, because you see, this is our once a year chance to go off the grid and there is a total ban on electronic devices. No exceptions, not even for Alice. So, use this time to catch up on or to reread your favorite posts. Think of it as summer reruns.

Episode Note: "A-Camping We Will Go"  Early in the first season, Mike and Carol are still struggling to bring the family together and think taking the girls along on  the boys annual camping trip is the perfect way for them to bond. The problem is, the girls don't want to go and the boys want them to stay home. So, camping they go. Disaster first strikes when the girls ruin the fishing, by being too "girlie" and there is nothing for Alice to fry up for dinner. As luck would have it, the girls packed a picnic basket full of fried chicken and cold cuts for just such an emergency. The boys reluctantly partake, but are still not sold on the idea of girls at a camp out. Things don't get much better at night, when the girls are spooked by every little noise they hear, and then successfully scare the boys into thinking there is a bear in their midst. The family comes together, literally, when the boys invade and knock down the girls tent as payback. Ah, the great outdoors. Keep Manhattan, just give me that countryside...