In May, the last of our boys moved away.  We have been empty-nesters for a few years, but they were close.  Our oldest, Joe, lived across the sidewalk from us so we could see him at any time.  Nick has been away at college, but we would see him when he was on a break from school.  Kevin lived about 15 minutes away and would generally stop in for a visit about once a week or so.  Nick was the first to leave us, moving to Richmond last summer.  Joe moved to Waynesboro temporarily in June and has since settled in Richmond.  Kevin moved to Richmond about a week after Joe left.  My nest feels very much more empty than it did before.

Missing the boys, we decided we would go to Lake Anna for our camping trip and invite the boys to come out for the day.  Joe had to work, but Nick and Kevin were able to enjoy the day with us.  Kevin’s girlfriend, Theresa and Nick’s roommate Callie joined us as well.

Lake Anna is not as far away as most of the trips we take, so we had a leisurely start to our day.  After an uneventful drive, other than some traffic issues, we arrived at Lake Anna around noon.  The boys were a bit behind us so we took advantage of the time to set up camp.  We quickly set up and then went over to the beach to set up for the picnic.  The beach was full of people.  We didn’t see any grills and had not brought one with us.  We decided to go to the picnic area instead.  We easily found an available grill right next to the water.  We set up our canopy for some shade and started the grill.

The kids arrived a few minutes later.  We had no specific plans other than to enjoy the lake, the picnic, and the company.  After enjoying our lunch we went into the lake to cool off.  It was very hot, so the cool water was amazing.  Kevin recently rescued a Miniature Pinscher.  It was so entertaining watching this big guy carry this tiny dog around in one hand.  Pablo enjoyed being in the water with his daddy.  Nick’s pooch, Beasley, however, was not at all interested in swimming.  She much preferred to hang out by the picnic table with Chris.

We spent the afternoon catching up and it was glorious.  Eventually, the evening started to take hold and it was time for the boys to head back home.  We went back to our campsite.  Chris, exhausted from the heat, fell asleep on the picnic table.  I entertained myself by working on puzzles.  Before I realized it, the sun had set and it was getting dark.  I started a fire but did not feel like cooking the meal we had planned for dinner so we just heated up some of the hotdogs we had left from lunch.

After enjoying a peaceful evening by the fire, we were both tired and decided to call it a night.  With no chance of rain in the forecast, we had opted not to put the rain fly on the tent.  The evening air had cooled down significantly.  With the rain fly off and the cooler temperature, we slept very comfortably.

I had intended to cook eggs for breakfast.  Since we had not eaten the steak we had planned for dinner, we turned breakfast into steak & eggs and it was delicious.  Chris was not feeling well, a bit dehydrated, so I cooked breakfast.  I was really proud of myself for not overcooking the steak, and the eggs were perfect.

We were planning to play a round of putt-putt but with Chris feeling poorly we scrapped that plan and headed home.

Cost of trip – camping $5 (we earned a free stay through the Virginia State Parks loyalty program so only had to pay the reservation fee), 1/2 tank of gas $17.

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