our moonrise kingdom

Suggested soundtrack for this post: Francois Hardy's Le Temps De L'Amour

Have you seen Moonrise Kingdom yet? I hope so, because it's absolutely lovely, and because the title of this post will make a lot more sense if you have. 

The weekend before last Ross and I went on our first camping trip of the year, to Tuckahoe State Park on Maryland's eastern shore. This is Creature on the camping box; I'm pretty sure she didn't want us to leave (the fact that she pooped everywhere while we were gone makes me even more sure of that, but that's a different story). 

I've wanted to go to Tuckahoe for a long time because of its 60 acres of flooded forest. It did not disappoint.

Our canoe rental was only $15 for two hours, and the ranger made it pretty clear that we could stretch that as we wanted. This is a Great Blue Heron and a turtle in the same shot. We saw hundreds of turtles, some small enough to fit in my palm, some the size of dinner plates. 

This is a beaver, who could not have cared less that we were there. We got within three or four feet, and he still didn't swim away or even really acknowledge us. Beaver don't give a s***.

Ross' sharp eyes caught some of our beaver friend's handiwork.

We only saw one other boat the whole time we were on the water. It was a fishing boat helmed by two old guys. If I were writing a short story about this, they would maybe represent the spirit of the river (subtly, of course). That's why I don't write short stories anymore.

This is our Moonrise Kingdom. 

This is Ross. He's whittling a polar bear.

The next day we decided to go to the beach. This is our super delicious breakfast cooked on our super reliable and portable camp stove (thanks John and Diana!).

This is the beach! It's a little hard to tell from this picture, but beaches in Maryland are insanely crowded. I'm from Orange County and I've never seen crowds like this. It was also 90 degrees, which was amazing.

After a completely decadent day on the beach, we stopped in Lewes, Delaware, which now rivals Shepherdstown, WV for the coveted "My-Favorite-Town-on-the-East-Coast" award. Shepherdstown has more vegan restaurants and crunchy folks, but Lewes is smaller and quieter and has the single most elegant bookstore I've ever seen. 

After another night of sleeping out, campfires, whittling and reading, we came home. It was one of the best weekends ever, and it felt just. like. this: