First Camping Trip In The Books
Last weekend (Memorial Day weekend) my family and I went camping with a friend. It was my daughter's first real camping trip (besides the basement/backyard), my wife's first camping trip that she can remember, and my first camping trip since I was a child. That's why we chose a friend to go with - he has a lot of experience and has a lot of the gear we were missing.
We chose to only go 1 night, which meant we had to go Sunday night. (If you picked Friday or Saturday on a holiday weekend, there was a 2 night minimum). We were basically limiting ourselves to the sites where someone picked Friday and Saturday night and left on Sunday so we could take their spot. We found a place about a half hour away.
We couldn't have asked for better weather. It was gorgeous, not very windy, and not even a hint of rain. Temperatures were in the 80's during the day and got to around the mid 60's at night. It was a little cool at night, but not overly so. (I woke up early in the morning and noticed that I was getting a little chilly, but I was still able to get back to sleep).
Sleep wasn't as much of an issue as we thought. My daughter slept pretty well, although she went to bed nearly 2 hours later than normal. My wife and I slept a little less than normal, but not so much that we couldn't function on Monday.
My daughter loved the experience and wants to go again. My wife was never really fond of the idea to begin with, but thought it was all right and would be willing to try again. We learned a few things, like how NOT to make Jiffy Pop over a fire.
Since it looks like we'll be going again, I think we'll end up buying some more gear. For example, we knew we didn't have a camp stove for making breakfast, but our friend had one so we didn't bother buying one for this trip. But down the road he might not be along with us, so we'll need to get that and some other things. There's a few other things, like our chairs, that probably need to be replaced soon, but those are more in the "want to" list compared to the "need to" list that we'll work on before our next trip later this summer.
We chose to only go 1 night, which meant we had to go Sunday night. (If you picked Friday or Saturday on a holiday weekend, there was a 2 night minimum). We were basically limiting ourselves to the sites where someone picked Friday and Saturday night and left on Sunday so we could take their spot. We found a place about a half hour away.
We couldn't have asked for better weather. It was gorgeous, not very windy, and not even a hint of rain. Temperatures were in the 80's during the day and got to around the mid 60's at night. It was a little cool at night, but not overly so. (I woke up early in the morning and noticed that I was getting a little chilly, but I was still able to get back to sleep).
Sleep wasn't as much of an issue as we thought. My daughter slept pretty well, although she went to bed nearly 2 hours later than normal. My wife and I slept a little less than normal, but not so much that we couldn't function on Monday.
My daughter loved the experience and wants to go again. My wife was never really fond of the idea to begin with, but thought it was all right and would be willing to try again. We learned a few things, like how NOT to make Jiffy Pop over a fire.
Since it looks like we'll be going again, I think we'll end up buying some more gear. For example, we knew we didn't have a camp stove for making breakfast, but our friend had one so we didn't bother buying one for this trip. But down the road he might not be along with us, so we'll need to get that and some other things. There's a few other things, like our chairs, that probably need to be replaced soon, but those are more in the "want to" list compared to the "need to" list that we'll work on before our next trip later this summer.
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