The Summer of George

The End

Annie and I spent a solid week camping in the forests of western Wisconsin with her extended family. I never thought that I would ever do anything like that, but it's just like anything else - once you get used to falling asleep in a tent in the middle of the open sky, you just as quickly get used to waking up in a tent in the middle of the open sky. I wouldn't have had it any other way. Camping was beautiful.



I was able to play around with the camera for a bit, and got off these two shots. The top one is looking back downstream towards the rest of the campground. I did a color shot, too, with the same settings: aperture opened as much as possible and a 15 second exposure. The second one is my favorite. I turned away from the campfire at the tail-end of the sunset and was able to rest the camera on the arm of my chair to get this shot. It looked out right over a bow in the stream at our campsite. Felt more like a small lake than a stream, if you ask me.


One of the great things about camping is having the ability to sit around the fire at night and just talk to one another with little to no distractions. Most of Annie's cousins have small children, so once they were finally put down for the evening we'd break out the beers and shoot the breeze until we got tired. I only made it up past midnight one night. Too much oxygen in the system, I guess. I love the sparks shooting off the fire in this shot. I wish long-exposure shots weren't so emo.


Ethan, Annie's second cousin, took a backpack ride up Sand Mountain, which we hiked on our second to last day. It was a pretty steep incline for the entire trek up, which I guess wasn't that far, though it seemed like it to me. I must need to exercise more often, I guess.


But, as you can see, we made it okay. In fact, this was only our first stop. We trekked on for a bit afterwards.

The whole camping trip signifies the end of my summer, and to a smaller extent, the end of my writings here on Summer of George. I loved this summer. It felt like I was a kid again, and I did things similar to how a kid would do them.


I loved playing Dollar Day Poker (DDP) with Scott and John and Jesse and Zach. Scott really cleaned up the last two weeks, which was nice for him.

I really enjoyed the fact that Annie had summer days this year, and that we got to spend quite a bit of time together whether it was while we were looking for a house or doing home improvement projects on our house or at Home Depot shopping for items with which to complete home improvement projects on our house. My favorite memory is of she and I running down the access ramps at Wrigley as Neifi comes to bat in the middle of an intense rally.

I loved playing poker all summer long. I'll put it like this - Matt Fast said to me once, "Dude, your website is just pictures of chips and cards." I wouldn't want it any other way, Matt.

I loved the Adventure Days. We'll have to do it again next year, Pike, with more sponsors.

I loved everything about this summer. I wish it weren't ending.

I'm excited to go back to school, though to be honest, at this point, it just feels like I have a million things to do again. I'll miss my free time.

So, I bid you adieu, for now. Don't be suprised, though, if you see another Summer of George website pop up next year.

Goodbye for now.

posted by The Nightmare @ 5:55 PM