A lovely weekend getaway, Part 1

...so, no sooner had Auntie Rachel left than we had to start thinking about our own visit, to our friend Charon's cabin in the mountains of Maryland. Charon was my apartment-mate in college and has a son, Cameron, who is 8 and by turns rambunctious and polite.

We left on Friday morning -- Drew followed us later in the day -- and the trip up was pretty smooth. The cabin is in a gorgeous setting, with the twinkling lights of a town far below -- and the cabin itself is absolutely charming, thanks to Charon's great decorating skills. We had snacks on the way and then, after we got there, the kids paused to build a fort in the upstairs loft where Drew and I were going to sleep. Then we took a quick tour of a local park and a little island-like outcropping (I noticed there were campgrounds, which gave me an idea that we may want to return on our own one of these days.) The kids got along famously -- skipping rocks, complaining that the mommies were walking too far ahead, but then they followed us through the underbrush, hatching schemes for building a booby trap in the pillow fort when we got home.

We went to an all-you-can-eat buffet at a restaurant called Penn Alps, and unfortunately I couldn't eat much because it was Shabbat, but I did manage some fried chicken and corn, and I sampled most of the dessert (most with a Pennsylvania Dutch influence.) Drew met us there after the poor guy spent FIVE HOURS in traffic for a 2 1/2 hour trip, which was good, because Rachel had turned quite moody and emotional for some reason -- she was blowing hot and cold all day -- and then we all headed home.

Cameron and Rachel were extremely upset that we made them take down the pillow fort because the last thing I wanted was to have them wake us up at 6 in the morning, which is about the time that Cameron gets up. (He goes to bed at 7:30, which clearly wasn't happening on this trip.) Then we suggested they sleep on a mattress on the ground floor, which Rachel wasn't keen on, and then we finally took the mattress from the ground-floor pullout couch, dragged it upstairs to the living room, and the kids shared it. Rachel was by this time sobbing for a reason that I can't remember, and Drew finally told her to CALM DOWN -- I believe she may have been scared of bears, because Charon told her that she couldn't leave any food outside because they'd come and get it. Anyway, we all finally got to sleep after Drew opened the windows in the loft to help the air-conditioning start circulating.

And that is when my nightmare began.