To celebrate Spring Break last week, we decided a family camping trip to Inks Lake State Park was in order. We all piled into the car Tuesday morning as soon as Maggie was back from a tearful visit to the doctor (where she got a couple vaccinations and the assurance that she wouldn’t have to be punctured again until she is 11 years old) and headed north.

We arrived in time to set up tents and unload the canoe from the top of the car, where I had lashed it with several miles of overcautious not-boy-scout-approved knots, before the sky opened and the rain started in earnest. We rode the worst of it out by loudly reading The Chronicles of Narnia in the tent before taking off for a sodden hike to the Devil’s Waterhole. (I looked, but saw nobody of particularly diabolical mien swimming there.)

I had no memory of having been to Inks Lake before, and wasn’t terrifically impressed with the photos I saw of the place on the Internet, so was delighted to find the lake and its environs absolutely beautiful. Our campsite was mere feet from the edge of the water, and an easy walk from some of the rocky falls and grottos that marked a nearby river’s ingress to the lake. The park was well-appointed, with lots of playgrounds, a general store, and even boat rentals. (My only disappointment in that regard was that the website promised Surfbike rentals, which looked like an excellent reason to sign a liability waiver, but they were nowhere to be found.)

We spent a couple of days paddling around the lake, doing a bit of geocaching, taking hikes, wandering around the campground, roasting anything that came to hand over the campfire, reading, exploring nearby Marble Falls, etc. Sadly, a mere 6 photos into the trip, our camera decided that the world should be considerably more purple and smeary than it actually is, so we weren’t able to take much in the way of useful pictures. In spite of that setback, it was a nice vacation, loudly and repeatedly proclaimed by several of the kids as “the best camping trip ever!”