We arrived on Friday afternoon and quickly set up camp, enabling us to work remotely for the remainder of the day. Date Night cocktails and hors d’oeuvres were followed by a delightfully grilled New York strip with grilled asparagus, baked potato, and a glass of FAT Bastard cabernet. A phone call to our friend Bud rounded out the evening, leaving us with just enough energy to clean the kitchen before heading to bed.

Saturday’s weather was spectacular, enabling us to enjoy a morning under the pavilion reading, surfing the web, and resolving a few minor work-related issues. Despite having camped at Loyd Park for nearly a decade, we had never been in site 6, located near a footbridge spanning the creek. We have no idea why it took us so long to discover this little gem, but we’ll definitely look to reserving it again later in the season. After brunching and napping, we enjoyed cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, followed by a long walk and then a “scrap” fire—a campfire made up of scrap limbs and sticks scavenged from nearby woods and empty campsites. Once again, we fell into bed, exhausted, before the clock struck 10:30.

Sunday found us engaged in our typical pursuits, with one exception: We placed an order for a cast-stone fountain. Through the years, we’ve repeatedly invested (unwisely) in cheap fiberglass fountains readily available at the home-improvement stores, usually for a couple hundred dollars. They last a few seasons and then we replace them—a cycle we’ve been telling ourselves we would eventually break. This weekend we finally decided to get “real.” OK, so it’s not limestone, but poured cement is definitely an upgrade from fiberglass. Our new Closerie wall fountain is scheduled to arrive later this month, and hopefully it will bring a bit of French country charm to our backyard bistro. Closerie is French for an enclosed, fenced, or walled property, so it seems only fitting that it would complement our favorite retreat.