Vakay 

I've never heard anyone call a vacation a "vakay" before, but Noel tells me he heard the locution from one of his entertainment industry contacts recently.  In the interest of maintaining my Rodeo Drive street cred, I'll start sprinkling it into my conversation -- or at least into this blog entry about our trip to Meramec State Park.

The purpose of the trip was to reunite with close friends who fled the Natural State a year ago.  We set the meeting for the neutral ground of Missouri, a place that features bluffs, rivers, trails, and Branson. Actually, a beautiful drive through the Ozarks became a trafficky, boring slog right around the time we reached Branson.  But the billboards that started at the Missouri state line have done me one service: In case I'm ever diagnosed with a kuntry komedy deficiency, I know where to take my rest cure.

As you can see from this action photo, Meramec was rich in the natural resource of throwing rocks, and the kids mastered the synchronized pickup.  There was also wadin', fishin' (though not by us), hikin' (complete with ticks that had to be tweezed off), and, in a surprise move, cupcakes baked into ice cream cones.

We packed eight adults and seven children into the two sides of a four-bedroom duplex cabin, and managed to stay friends.  The food was copious and tasty, the kids were cute more often than they were in tears, the s'mores campfire was alarmingly vast, and the raccoons, while aggressive, showed no other signs of rabies.

Cady Gray and Archer "camped out" on blankets on the floor of our bedroom, and they got a reasonable amount of sleep for a vacation.  Because I didn't have my computer with me -- yes, three days without internet access or even a cell phone signal -- I didn't take notes on the many interesting things Archer said and did.  But in the interest of getting back to blogging after the short hiatus, and getting to the DVR full of reality TV on a night when I'm bone tired, I'll just mention one.  At the same river visit as depicted in the picture, the kids spent half an hour sitting in the gravelly shallows pouring rocks and water in and out of cups.  Archer let go of his cups for a second, and when the current started moving them downstream, he called to them happily: "Come back, cups!  I need you to do science!"

Posted: Wednesday - June 27, 2007 at 06:46 PM         |