Pocono Blast (4th of July style)

Every year, my family generally goes on two trips during the summer. Once, for a week to our vacation destination of the year (the past three have been Ocean City, MD, Wildwood, NJ, and Ocean City again), and once to the Poconos for the three-day weekend of 4th of July. We stay at my grandmother's place at Pinecrest Lake, hit up their awesome pool, enjoy a meal at the local Pizza Hut (I don't know why this is a tradition), and break out the cards at night. It's a great time every year, even though the place doesn't have air conditioning, or wifi, and bothers my mom's, Kyle's, and my allergies. 

My grandmother has decided to sell it, as apparently it's expensive to keep, and none of the family use it very much (mainly cause our allergies are awful), so we decided to go up for a week this year. The day before we were supposed to leave (Tuesday) we decided to leave Wednesday instead because it was supposed to rain the next day and we were planning to stop at Dorney Park on the way there. 

This trip was different than our usual trip in so many ways. The most noticeable was that we went for 6 days instead of 3. We also didn't have the usual weather we had while we were there. It rained one day, and was overcast for another two. During the remaining three, it just wasn't hot enough that you wanted to hang by the pool all day. On Saturday we went to the pool, and I was roped into getting in. But afterwards, after we dried off, we were using our towels as blankets. It was warmer in the water. 

This makes it sound like this was an awful trip. It wasn't! We didn't do what we had planned to do, but we still had a great time. We've been the Poconos for 4th of July since before I was in school. I don't remember it, but supposedly they used to have a 4th of July fair on the fields by the front entrance to the club. They haven't had it in many years. There are new townhouses, complete with patios and garages, on one of the fields now (I say new, they're at least five years old). 

One of our traditions when at the Poconos is to shoot off rockets. We go to the Pocono Racetrack, which has a large field in front of it, and shoot off three or four rockets. This year, we got caught by a security guard chasing them, who of course, once he knew what we were doing, was fine with it. But one of the two rockets went past the first fence surrounding the track (there are four fences) and the boys couldn't find it. The other broke in it's first run, so we only ending up shooting off two, but the tradition was upheld. 

I love Pocono, and I'm going to miss it in the years to come. My dad says we'll make a new tradition for 4th of July, but hopefully it's out of New Jersey, because fireworks are illegal there, and what's 4th of July without them?