Last weekend my husband and I had the pleasure of going tent camping. Now we had camped before, when we first got married. But that was almost 12 years ago, so i was alittle bit nervous about this trip. I have become accustomed to hotels, cozy beds, clean sheets and meals in restaurants when i travel. I have decided this year is the year to jump outside of my boring box, and try new things and excting things.
Well the first thing i can tell you about camping is that the packing is a huge task. We were only going to stay 2 nights and i still had to pack just as much stuff as if we were staying for an entire week. Now our food was just enough for 2 nights and 3 days, but the bedding, mattress, pillows and outdoor stuff took up so much space. Incredible. But i packed all of our stuff in big rubbermaid containers, what a life saver. Easy to pack, easy to stack on top of one another, easy to see everything..........genius if i do say so myself.
Well we hit the road around noon on friday and we arrived at our campsite around dinner time. We were greeted by our cousins and aunt and uncle who had already been camping there for a few days. First things first put up the tent. There is a system to putting the tent up and its all about preventing water, dew or rain into or onto or near the tent. So first the tarp goes down, then the tent is assembled on top, and then a 2nd pop up tent was assembled on top of that. Then to the air mattress and then the bedding. Fun stuff making a bed in a hot tent. Ok now that that is done we can start to pull out some food to get dinner started.
Dinner, as well as all of the other meals were all cooked on our little hibatchi.What a wonderful invention. We had burgers that first night, and sitting in the bug net eating area , they tasted delicious!
That first night we had a fire on our site with our family. I forgot how much fun it is to sit around, chatting, playing word games, eating chips, laughing, telling jokes, and using the flashlight to see whatever it is you are looking at. Around 11pm someone brought out hotdogs and let me tell you ,for a girl who rarely eats a hotdog, they were delicious cooked over the open fire! wow ! but the highlight of our weekend trip, yes the highlight ! was when we made dessert in the cast iron sandwich makers. Double Wow ! My cousin who is the sandwich maker chef extrodanaire ! made a variety of delights. The first one i had was apple and cinnamon filled. The bread is crunchy on the outside and the apples were warm and sweet on the inside. The second one i tried was a nutella feast of ooey gooey hazelnut bliss. If you dont have one of these cast iron sandwich makers, you should seriously consider buying one. They are well worth it.
Saturday morning my husband and I were up before most of the people in the campsite. We walked to the bathroom, and its funny how you can hear all the snorers as you walk the pathway. We were giggling at them as we walked past each tent. Some sounded like bears! About half an hour later, there was rumblings of other people waking up. I thought most campers would be up super early, but i was wrong, they were all lazy bones in their tents until about 8am.
Breakfast was cooked on our hibatchi again, and was fantastic. The day was wonderful , we had showers for about 5 minutes in the morning, we had a wonderful bike ride with my Uncle and Aunt who showed us some neat little spots and paths. Then we spent the day at the beach and swam and laughed and played volleyball. What a treat!
That night after dinner my husband and I went for a walk , the moon was full and the reflection off the lake was beyond beautiful. After admiring it we started to head back up to our site. There was a short cut path through some trees so we thought we would head up that path. With our flashlight shining ahead of us, we took each step carefully, since there were tree roots and loose rocks to maneuver around. It was so quiet and nice until we both noticed at once, a skunk about 5 feet head of us. He stopped to look at us. We both turned and ran back down the path tripping over the tree roots and roacks and got back to the road as fast as we could! When we got to the road, we were laughing so hard, and trying to catch our breath from the sprint we just finished through the trees. Next to the dessert made on the fire, this was 0our 2nd highlight of the weekend !
I learned a few things about camping:
-you have no control over the weather, so i hope if you go your as lucky as we were and have no rain
-little itty bitty skunks can make the toughest man run like a little girl
-putting ice in the coolers every day is a must!
-marshmellow in your hair is a sticky mess
-the only way to eat a hotdog is when its cooked on an open fire
-cast iron sandwich makers are the bomb
-its ok to eat alittle dirt in your food
-Crocs are the best camping shoes ever
-when you get home, you will have to wash all of your packed clothes, even the clean ones you didnt wear, they will all smell like fire smoke
-feeding the chipmunks is fun!
-having the right eqiupment and gear makes the experience so much easier and so much more fun
But most important...............Nothing beats family and friends enjoying love, time, company and stories sitting around the campfire. If you havnet camped in a while, then i suggest you set a date, pick a park, get packing and enjoy the trip !
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