We arrived late last night at Lovejoy Pond in Readfield, Maine…the destination of our 10-day summer vacation. Maine is a long way from Charlotte, North Carolina and I had plenty of time to think on the 997 mile journey. Somewhere around mile 797, while simultaneously popping M&M’s and gulping down Diet Dr. Pepper’s, a thought occurred to me. This thought would become the impetus of an idea which grew into a sort of challenge, actually, during the next 200 miles, and which has resulted in what I am calling the Hetzel Adventures in Good, Clean Fun. The thought was this…”Hey, we haven’t listened to the radio for the entire ride”.
I did look back and see my sleeping daughter (#5, age 14) with earplugs in, listening to an iPod, so it wasn’t as if we had been electronic-free the whole ride (although we only had one iPod and so there had to be a fair amount of sharing going on). However with the exception of a two-hour DVD (Coast Guard Alaska), we hadn’t watched a movie either. It was about this point that the thought drifted into my consciousness about the radio. And the result after another few hours in the car (feeling a little sick from the junk food) was that I would embark on a kind of adventure (well, not me alone…my non-consulted family members too). The adventure would involve clean eating, living, and good, old fashioned fun. I wanted to test my newly devised hypothesis that by eating cleanly, living without electronics (with the exception of my nightly iPad reports and the necessary work that my husband would have to do) we could have a wonderfully retro vacation and also feel great doing it.
There are just three basic rules to our adventure…namely:
1. There will be no electronics with the exception of minimal cell phone usage. I realize that this rule is not all that difficult since there is no TV here. However even the one ipod we have will remain in the car.
2. With the exception of the 24 hamburgers and four bags of Tostitos already purchased, we will eat fish, some lobster, and mostly what grows out of the ground.
3. Along these same lines-we will eat a minimal amount of sugar (the Apple Shed bakery makes the most incredible turnovers that we just can’t possibly avoid). Besides my morning cup of Via (Starbucks instant) we will drink only water (although we’ll finish off the raspberry lemonade which was left for us in the fridge). This WILL be hard for me because I’m sort of a soda-lover!
I will be checking in on a daily basis at 9 Kid Fitness… recording some of the days happenings and the good, clean fun on the banks and in the waters of Lovejoy Pond (it is actually a very large lake…not at all a pond). Together with my kids (hopefully consenting…but either way), I will come up with a thought of the day (I stole this idea from the Naval Academy- they require it of the entering freshman during Plebe Summer) and begin each entry with that thought. So until tomorrow, I am signing off from Maine…
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