Carry on Camping... or go home.

This weekend the plan was to camp for two nights at Portage Lakes State Park. We got to our campsite on Friday afternoon. It was on a nice campground and although some of the campsite was rather muddy we had plenty of room to put up our tent and tether the dogs.

For dinner that night we cooked some potatoes in the fire and served them with baked beans and cheese. We got a little distracted and so the potatoes overcooked and the skins were inedible.
But it didn't matter much because we were joined by Pippen....
.... and his owners Jennifer and Michael. Michael is one of the partners at the company Matt now works with.

After a night relaxing by the campfire Matt and I headed out to explore some of the trails around the lakes. They were rather disappointing, it seems that it is more a park for boaters as the trails were really just paths mowed through overgrowth.

After our walk we headed back to the campsite for lunch.
As the afternoon progressed it became more and more humid and muggy. We could also hear thunder in the distance heading our way. So we decided that we would rather pack up and head home for a date night instead of deal with bad weather and lots of mud.

We went to Saigon Grille for dinner where I had THE BEST PHO IN CLEVELAND!!!!!! It was soooooo good. I didn't take a photo because I was too busy shoving it in my face.

I did manage to take a photo of Matt's Vietnamese coffee, as it arrived before the Pho. The coffee drips into the cup which contains a small amount of sweetened condensed milk. The waiter was very kind explaining what Matt needed to do with the drink. The service there was great and they were very happy when I told them they have the best Pho :) Hopefully they'll remember us the next time we go back.

Matt was so impressed with the coffee that he is presently out on a search for some sweetened condensed milk to use with some homemade percolated coffee :)
This morning we headed out to Cuyahoga to walk a couple of trails (3 1/2 miles). We got to see some pretty neat rock formations

This photo is taken next to 'Ice Box Cave', which lives up to it's name: as you cross the bridge you get a nice blast of cold air from inside the cave.
The trail took us over a couple of bridges
and to an overlook.

For the afternoon Matt is going to work on a talk he wants to give and I am going to do some reading. You know, it's a real shame that I didn't take a photo of that wonderful Pho.... maybe we should go back so that I can get a photo????