A "wet" run

For Memorial Day weekend, we packed up our ultra-light camping gear, a cooler with meals and snacks, and piled into our trusty canoe for an overnight canoe-camping trip. We portaged 5 blocks from our home to Inwood Hill Park marsh and waded through some muck to the beautiful Hudson River. We had lunch about 5 miles north at the Beczak Environmental Center in Yonkers. Things were pretty smooth until north of the Tappan Zee Bridge where the wind picked up and we were cut off by an obnoxious motor boat driver. Even in 2-foot swells, though, the kids were having a good time, singing songs and waving at anyone they could. We arrived at our destination 20 miles upriver at Croton Point Park just before dusk with enough time to find a campsite next to a group with 2 kids who Liliana and Jonah quickly befriended.

While inhaling our burgers, Greg boiled water on his miniature camp stove that is smaller than a coke can cut in half. Yes, that is what the picture here shows. He used the boiling water to re-hydrate the angel hair and tomato sauce he dehydrated at home. I was unsure how the kids would react to the pasta. (Greg had made the pasta using a jar of my mother's tomatoes. He thought it was her ready-made sauce and did not add any herbs or spices before adding it to the pasta and drying it.) The kids were not only eager to try it but they kept asking for more! Liliana exclaimed, "Papa, I never thought dehydrated pasta could taste so good!"

Very promising that our next dehydrated pasta dish on the road will have added flavor.

We had a decent night sleep in our tee-pee style tent. After a breakfast of hot oatmeal, cold brew coffee, and turkey sausage, we packed up and slowly made our way back to the canoe. We quickly realized that the winds would not be as forgiving as the day before and after an hour and a half of rowing against the current and wind, we pulled into the lee-side of a little river-side park with some grass and a few benches. It would take us 12 hours of paddling to get back in these conditions.

Conveniently, the park was directly south of the Scarborough train station which would take me back to Inwood in less than 40 minutes. I hopped on the 2pm train to Marble Hill to get our car and pick up the family. While I enacted the back-up plan, Greg made a trash kite out of 2 sticks and some old newspaper. Here is Liliana flying it.