More Camping

Around 1:30, my fellow campers started to arrive. Jen and Zoila were quickly followed by Kerry and Meredith, Matt and Mary, Jeff and Rachel, and Jeremy and Luella. The rest of the afternoon was spent setting up camp, eating and taking pictures. We all had a serious case of tent envy when Rachel and Jeff pulled out their new tent cabin. Our tent is nothing to sneeze about, but wow...this thing was awesome. Not much bigger than ours in square feet, but the sides are all tall enough to stand up straight. Situated between Matt and Mary's tent (couldn't find a link, suffice to say it was smaller) and Meredith and Kerry's, it was, as Rachel called it, the palace.

That night we started a fire and started dinner. It was fun seeing what everyone had brought for dinner. (The Most Original Camping Meal Award goes to Jeremy and Luella for their chicken stir fry and fried rice on Saturday night - made over an open fire no less. The No Cook Award goes to Meredith and Kerry who brought bread, cheese, salad and energy bars, ensuring they would not have to cook a single thing all weekend.)

After dinner we stuffed ourselves with s'mores. Meredith shared her vegan marshmallows. (Who knew marshmallows had animal byproducts?) Interesting texture. A little more dense. When they roasted, the sugar on the outside caramelized into a crunchy, chewy coating. Chad liked them much better than regular marshmallows.

Joseph woke the campsite nice and early the next morning. (A little too early by the bleary eyed faces of some of my fellow campers as they stumbled out of their tents.) We had a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs and then got ready to go for a morning walk on the beach.

We came back, ate lunch and put the kids down for their naps and started a game of Scramble. Hillery and Mike had arrived at that point and Matt and Mary had departed. We were able to use Hillery (our resident English teacher) as our dictionary.

"Hillery! Is 'qaf' a word?"

Hillery looks up from where she's putting in a tent stake. "No Rachel."

"Dang it!"

It wasn't a very competitive game. Luella helped all sides until she finally took over for Jeff. It wasn't a very high scoring game - I won with a measly 145 points. But it was fun.

After Scrabble, we played Apples to Apples. One by one, the little ones woke up. They ate snacks, they played Uno with Chad, Jen and Zoila, they played in the tents. It was nice having so many adults around. As the kids ran across the campsites, the adult in that "quadrant" took over the watch. Nadia and Kaleb were great helps, as only seven-year-olds can be.

When everyone woke up, we went back down to the beach to play in the sand and watch the waves.

That night, after dinner, we sat around the campfire, waiting for the apple cobbler to cook in the hot coals of the fire pit, playing Apples to Apples again.

It was an early night followed but a not-so-early morning. (Joseph slept until nearly 7:00!!) Everyone but Jen and Zoila broke down their tents. By 9:11 (checked the clock) everyone had loaded up and was starting to head out. Jeremy and Luella, Meredith and Kerry, Chad and I headed into Cambria for breakfast at the Redwood Cafe.

Overall, we had a really good time. It could have been...interesting...with so many different people camping in one area. It ended up being great. We can't wait to try it again.