Camping at Grand Lake at St. Mary's

Today we launched our summer camping trip, this time at Grand Lake at St. Mary's state park.  Technically we left the house last night, but it was raining with the threat of severe weather later.  We had a break from the rain long enough to set up our tent last night. We spent the night in a nearby motel and headed back to the campsite today under much clearer skies. After eggs and bacon, we geared up for swimming.  Grand Lake is Ohio's largest inland lake.  When it was built in the 1800's, it was the largest man-made lake in the world at the time.  We really didn't explore the lake, just the beach near the campgrounds.  The cove floor was a little mucky, but the boys had fun.  The beach itself smelled fishy, and when we were leaving we realized that it was due to the sand-covered dead fish about 20 feet from our towels.



The campground let us rent bikes - actually chopper-style trikes that Alex tooled around in for an hour. 



Tonight we built a fire and roasted hot dogs for our dinner.  Later we roasted marshmallows for s'mores.  A group of people set up a soccer game in a field behind our tent and the boys watched the match until bedtime.  After we put them down Becky and I engaged in our favorite camping activity.  Sitting by the fire and talking until we burned up all of the wood by about 1 in the morning.