This past weekend Paul and I headed out to Deep Creek Lake in Western Maryland for a weekend of fun in the woods with some of my friends from church. There was a total of ten of us. We rented a 5 bedroom house for the weekend. Big kudos to Nikki for doing all the leg work on that.

The house was a place called Cameron Station and it was great.

Some deer were there to greet us when we arrived. They were not afraid at all.

It was just up the hill from the lake, so it had a great view and you could easily walk down a trail to the lake if you wanted.

It had a hot tub, though I never got around to using it. There was a gas fire place in the main level living room and a wood burning fireplace in the basement living room. We took advantage of both. There was a great big table in the dining area that we could all fit around to eat and play games. I’m pretty sure that table was one of the reasons we gravitated towards this house.

The one wall overlooking the lake was essentially all windows. If I owned the house I would definitely have invested in some shades for them because the sun beat in during the day and made the house really warm. I can’t imagine being there in the summer. You must roast during the middle of the day. As it was we were joking about sun bathing in the living room. It was nice to be truly warm during the long cold winter though.

We spent most of the weekend playing games and eating. I’m pretty sure we brought enough food and alcohol to last us for a week instead of a weekend. We actually started off the trip by meeting up at a bowling alley where we bowled a couple of games before checking into the house. As always my bowling skills leave something to be desired, but I had fun anyway. And hey I managed to break 100 the second game. I’m probably ready for the pro bowling tour now.

We played many board games over the course of the weekend. Friday we started off with Clue. It was Miss Scarlett with poison in the dining room, not the living room as many of us suspected because someone failed to show he had that card multiple times. I’m not naming any names. It was actually a newer version of Clue than I’ve played before. It had all kinds of new weapons and new rooms. There were also some new types of cards that we just chose to ignore so that we mostly played the old fashioned way as God intended. We finished off Friday night with a game of Balderdash. I came in second, which I was impressed with because I generally don’t think I’m that creative.

Saturday we went for a hike in the woods around the house and walked down to the lake to get a closer look. The lake was mostly frozen over. Every day we could see people out walking on it from the house. I thought they were insane and just asking to die. It hasn’t been consistently cold enough this year for me to feel in any way confident that the lake was frozen solid enough to be safe. It wasn’t even frozen solid by the shore where the water was lapping against the shore, though as the boys all tested out by hurling large rocks at it, the ice was much more solid a little farther out. The little black spot towards the center of the picture is one of the rocks they threw out there.

Then of course we played more games. We played Ticket to Ride, which I always enjoy though I never win. We played Phase 10, which we wound up quitting in the middle of because it was taking forever and everyone was getting frustrated with having to play the same hands over and over again. We all obviously have great sportsmanship. A few of us also worked on putting together a jigsaw puzzle only to discover that we only had 499 of the 500 pieces. Sad trombone.

Saturday night we made a real fire in the fireplace and of course made s’mores. There was some college basketball watching followed by watching the first episode of the People vs. OJ Simpson.

Sunday after yet another delicious breakfast we cleaned up and got ready to check out then had a little mini church service of our own before leaving. It was a fantastic weekend with great friends. I can’t wait to do it again next year.