My birthday! Fifty-one, whatever......We're back from camping, came back a day early, actually. We headed out last Saturday in both vehicles, me and Alex in the truck, all the girls in the van. It's about a 4-ish hour drive, which got us there around 3. The campground was packed full, but as we were to see later on, it did not stay that way. We got everything set up in the high heat, then the rain started around 6. The Boschains came out to see us that first night, and they brought stuff to make s'mores, but the campfire we made did not last very long. It rained harder and harder as it got later. We basically just hung out under the awning or in the camper (we found that the canopy we have is NOT waterproof!) until they left that night. It was supposed to rain (at least a good chance of showers/thunderstorms) most of Sunday as well, which was ok because that day we went to Louisville to see the Boschains at their place. We had lunch out at a BBQ restaurant and made dinner together at their house, and hung out there playing games and talking while the kids played video games. The exodus from the campground had started by the time we left, and by the time we got back, the campground was maybe about 20% full. It stayed that way until we left. Monday, since Nat still had to do summer school, Beth took her to a coffee shop in Madison in the morning for the wi-fi, and I took Alex and Missy on a hike of trail 4, to one of the waterfalls and to the railroad relics. After Nat was done with school, we all went out to town to go to that big antiques store in the old lumber mill. Our campsite was visited by a large bird of prey later that afternoon. I took Nat to town for school on Tuesday, and did a little geocaching in town while she schooled. We went to the nature center to see if we could positively identify the raptor we saw yesterday, and it turns out it was a red-tailed hawk. We hadn't thought so, but I guess we hadn't gotten a good look at the tail. I did some solo geocaching while the girls went to the old town for more shopping. Later on all the kids and I went on a hike to see the falls (they have visibly less water than they did when we were here last year). Nat hiked all the way back to the campsite herself, took until after dark. Wednesday, we went to Crystal Beach, a 1930-s era public pool in the old town, in the early afternoon to try to keep cool. We were concerned about social distancing but the crowd hadn't looked as big as we thought it might be, so we tried it. Again, it wasn't too crowded, and it was very clean and very nice. About the only time all week we were comfortably cool. Later on, the Boschains came back out again, and we all went on a hike through the tunnel (except Lily, who was afraid of bats, and Gary, who stayed with Lily). But the hike past Tunnel Falls was great, and Jake had a lot of fun crossing the tunnel. Since it was dry this time, the campfire for s'mores was very successful this time. Thursday, we went to Louisville again, at first trying to get together with Gary for lunch, but that wasn't working out, so we killed time at the malls until we could go to their place (Renee babysits). Gary was working late so we didn't see him at all that day. But, we all had a good time at the house playing games and hanging out. By Friday, Beth was asking if maybe we could go home a day early. The intense heat of the week was getting to everyone, even with the AC, and everyone was ready to be done. The kids and I had planned a creek-bed hike to the upper falls, but in the end all of them backed out so I went myself. The trail ends before you get to the falls, which is a bummer, but it was an awesome hike with amazing vistas. Including the one with the copperhead in it, but he didn't want to be around me any more than I wanted to be around him. I got a good hike in and did the tunnel again just for good measure, then got back to the campsite, finished packing up the camper (Beth and the kids had done as much as they could without me), cleaned myself up, and we went home.....We started laundry the day after we got home, and first thing was the dryer wasn't working. It was making a bang every time it turned around. So Beth and I spent an afternoon at a local laundromat, spending about $30 to get everything done.....