Camping, August 2015

Once again we went camping to Wompatuck State Park with Sarah and Sean, and this year Miriam, Davis, Garrison, and Clarinda joined us. Despite thunderstorms from 6:00 until midnight on Saturday (Miriam and Davis bugged out to a hotel, but the rest of us stayed put), a few scraped knees, and a lot of mosquito bites, we had a wonderful (and snake-free) weekend.

On Friday afternoon we arrived, set up our tents at three adjoining campsites, and set up the "dining room" tent at ours since we were in the middle. Sarah had printed up warning signs with pictures of poison ivy, and somehow we managed to escape it entirely during the weekend.

The kids rode their bikes around all the paved roads near the campsites, going up and down and in loops. Samantha really got the hang of her balance bike over the weekend.

Friday night Miriam made sausages and a farro and veggie salad, and we roasted potatoes in the coals for Saturday and made s'mores. The kids played a glow-stick ringtoss game, and everyone slept well.

I had picked up a load of camping books from the library, and all of them were read multiple times, between the four kids and three days.

Saturday breakfast was scrambled eggs and bacon by Sarah and Sean, and make-your-own breakfast sandwiches with English muffins. After breakfast, Sean took out the DIY marshmallow shooter kits he'd made with PVC, and we let the kids assemble and then decorate them with brightly-colored tape. They were the perfect size for mini marshmallows.

Then the kids and Davis, Robert, and Sean went fishing (Marcus caught a sunfish) and messed around down by the lake for a bit, returning tired and hungry for lunch, which was grilled corn, spinach dip and chips, and a variety of quesadillas in Tex-Mex, nouveau, and pizza flavors. Saturday night, with the rain, our dinner was somewhat abbreviated (baked potatoes topped with cheese sauce, salsa, broccoli, and baked beans), and we ended up all sleeping in one room of Sarah and Sean's tent because the other room got too wet.

Sunday morning was sunny again, though, and the kids made pancakes and hobo packets (potatoes, onions, peppers, spinach, mushrooms, and breakfast sausages) for breakfast.

We packed everything except the wet tents, which we opened up to let air circulate through, and went over to a lawn to play a little wiffle ball.

Lunch was peanut butter sandwiches and granola bars at the wiffle ball field, and then Miriam and Davis left to drive home and we went back to pack up the tents. When we finally left, we drove to Larz Anderson Park and had barbeque take-out from Red-Eyed Pig together with Sarah and Sean on Sunday evening, and then were home, bathed, with the kids in bed, by 8:00. What a great weekend! Next year, Sarah and Sean are more ambitious, hoping for three nights of camping in Maine. With expert camping friends like them? We're in!

 

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Created: 8/17/15. Last Modified: 8/17/15.