"Camping"

The title of this post is in quotations b/c the word "camping" means different things to us. To Amy, it means "car camping." To me, it means "backpacking." The former involves coolers, bathrooms, swimming pools, games, communal areas, normal meals, etc. The latter leans towards minimalism, long hikes, solitary environments, etc. Seeing that we have never done much of either since we've been married (which is very sad to both of us), her way seemed best for several reasons. The first and most obvious is Gus. He's only 9 months old, so taking him camping forced us to err on the safe side initially. His young age coupled with our limited availability to get away from normal life, our rusty skills and the relative proximity of the campsite to home all added up for 18 hours of car camping.

We're so glad we went and we're hopeful that it will be a catalyst to some continued camping in the future...the form of which will be up for debate! Amy did pretty much everything to get us ready for this excursion. All I had to do was come home from work on Friday afternoon, pack a few things for me and then we were off! Great job, Frau!

Set up. We bought this very large, very heavy tent used from Unclaimed Baggage a while back and were unsure how easy it would be to set up. Thankfully, it was a breeze and all the parts were there. We couldn't be happier that $25 gave us this much tent! I'm not sure how it would perform in rain, but we'll leave that test for another trip. By the way, almost immediately after this picture was taken, Gus reached down, pulled up a large handful of dirt and ate it before we could extract ourselves from the various tent poles, rain flies, etc. that we were trying to assemble.

After we set up the tent, Amy made an attempt at the camp fire. She had some early, promising flame...but, alas, it wouldn't hold. Enter the man of the family. What is it about guys and fire?

We had hot dogs, baked beans and chips for dinner. For a nightcap, we made smores. Amy and I got to talking about the experience and both realized that we don't really care for smores. For me, it's the messy, sticky fingers you're left with. Amy would prefer the usage of dark chocolate to the traditional Hershey's milk chocolate. Sorry V Man, but that tradition may not be around by the time you're old enough to give them a try. I do like a good, roasted marshmallow, however. I used to burn the outside, slide off the burnt skin and eat it and then start the process again until there was no more marshmallow. Now that I know about cancer and excess carbon in food, however, those days are over. Then again, I used to eat raw hamburger meat when I was a kid, too. I guess we've learned a lot in the past 31 years. I still continue to eat raw cake batter and cookie dough, however. I don't plan to give up those rare treats anytime soon!

Gus slept in his pack and play on one side of the tent. He went to sleep later than usual, but once he was down he didn't wake up until about 6:15 am (which is pretty normal). Amy and I didn't fare as well. There were some rowdy Mennonites in the site next to ours. They stayed up until around 3 am talking, laughing, throwing green branches into their fire and otherwise making noise. If you'd told me when we arrived that they'd be the last group at the camp to go to bed... Who knew? They were asleep for the first two hours of our morning activities. I thought about going over to their campsite banging one of our borrowed pots with a stick to even things out a little, but Amy convinced me otherwise.

We spent the morning just relaxing from within the relative safety of the tent. We had breakfast burritos for, well, breakfast. Afterwards, Amy and I read. Gus read a little, too. He's got a book called First Words that he really enjoys. The rest of the time he just spent playing with his colored cups, my keys, Amy's phone and did some crawling, too. At one point he tipped over and hit his face on the floor of the tent. Wouldn't have been a big deal except for the fact that there was a rock underneath the tent floor. He caught it right above one of his eyes and had a little knot to show for it. Sorry buddy! I'll rake the area before we set up next time!