A couple weeks ago, my friends and I planned a last-minute, much-needed weekend trip up to the mountains. My friend Kelly has a house on Lake Hauto, located right outside of Jim Thorpe. Kelly and I drove up Friday night, and our friends Taylor and Lexi came Saturday morning.

Friday night Kelly and I relaxed, much-needed for me after a stressful week of running a day camp.

By the time Saturday rolled around, I was well-relaxed and ready for a day of fun. We had a day on the boat planned. Once we were all ready, we headed to the lake. We loaded our snacks and drinks on the boat and set sail.

We used a two-person tube attached to the boat for some extra fun. Kelly and I braced ourselves for a wild ride as the driver whipped us around. Neither of us could stop laughing. There was just something about being bounced around that made us non-stop laugh. Once we got to the turns, though, we became serious so we could hold on for our lives to make sure we didn’t get thrown off. All in all, it was a fun ride.

After we all got a turn on the tube, we anchored the boat so we could have lunch, relax and swim. We had a nice day on the lake.

Later that night we went back to the lake beach to enjoy drinks and some live music. A couple weekends out of the summer the lake club hires a band to play on the beach. Although the bands are normally pretty good, we did not enjoy this one, but it was still nice to spend time together.

I had a lot of fun that weekend and am glad we were able to get away. Sometimes it’s hard for us all to spend quality time in the summer because there is always stuff going on, but we made it work.

— Mary Melnick, social media and editorial coordinator