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This was my first time at Camp Friedlander, and the cabins there are QUITE nice.  4 bunks to a cabin and they each had their own heat.  2 of the cabins were self sufficient adult cabins.  They had their own bathroom, shower, fridge, couch, living area and bunk room.  The weren’t huge, but we used them as a common area, and that worked out great.

Immediately after unpacking, we headed out to the aquarium in Newport.  Cincinnati has a lovely downtown and I always like gazing at the skyline.  The aquarium is right on the river and nestled in a cool little commercial district not unlike Easton.  Lots of unique shops and restraunts, clubs and movie theaters.

The place was PACKED.  The line was easily several hundred people long.  We walked up to the front, asked for our tickets, and walked right in.  Hooray for Justin and preplanning!  The number and variety of animals we saw is to vast to mention.  I asked the boys what the highlights were and here is what I heard.  The white alligators – snowball and snowflake were cool to see.  Big Mike – the 15 foot Alligator – was pretty amazing.  Petting the sharks was a great experience.  Seeing the jellyfish was reminiscent of a scifi experience. Touching some of the other animals – starfish, sea slugs, and rays were all intense (and fun) things to do.

After the aquarium we went directly to supper – La Rosas. In my opinion this is one of the top 2 pizza places in the country.  Justin got us a deal where we could get all the pizza and soda we wanted for just $6 each.  I don’t think any table was pizza free after the first ones showed up.  They kept coming, and coming, and coming.  Anyone who left hungry, did not do so because of lack of food.

It was just a short drive back to the cabin to relax… for about 2 minutes.  The boys went out and played hide and seek in the snow.  This morphed into sledding down the large snow covered hill.  They were out playing, laughing and enjoying eachothers company until about 10:00.

It was then time to clean up, dry off, and head to bed.  These beds were about the most comfortable scout bunks I have slept in.  They were not like a hotel, but they were better than the paper thin mattresses I have slept on before.

Getting up on Sunday, we headed for a group breakfast.  It was a cold breakfast so that we could have easy cleanup and be on the road by 10:00.  This was one of my most favoritest breakfasts ever.  There were doughnuts, cereal, milk, juice, but the best part was poptarts and pizza!  Oh yes, we could each get one piece of pizza and one poptart.  If only there were Mountain Dew instead of milk, it would have been perfect 🙂

The campmaster checked to make sure that we were all cleaned up properly and we headed home.  Thank you once again for sharing your boys with us.  I see my boys on these campouts get outdoors and play and use their imagination like they rarely do at home.  The scouting program gives them a great opportunity to play with boys of varying ages and share their lives with one another.

See you Monday,