Camping Stories

Two other fathers and I took our kids camping this weekend. Here's a quick assortment of camping stories. Hannah and I had a great time, as did the other dads and kids.

On Friday afternoon, Hannah and I drove up to the area where the campsite was, and did a nearby hike. There were several creeks and footbridges. There were some bugs, too. At one point, I muttered, "Go away, mosquitoes - I'm not your lunch." Hannah thought this was hilarious, and every meal had variations: "Go away, bugs, I'm not your breakfast!" "Go away, bugs, I'm not your dinner!" Hannah was very impressed with s'mores, and had several. When she was almost done, she said, "I think I need just ... ummm ... three more." Who can blame her?

She was my big helper on this trip: she helped me put the rain fly on the tent and take it off, carried tools here and there, carried her luggage from the van to the camp, watched the roasting s'mores, and generally did whatever I asked her to do. She was very proud of herself, especially when she helped take down part of our tent on the last day without my even asking.

We went for a late evening hike on Saturday night. Hannah saw a big black slug, coming out for the evening ... and then another, and then another. "This place is awash in slugs!", she says. This was pretty much true. Later that night, I was trying to climb into the tent oh-so-quietly, and I reached down to slip off my show and put my hand right on a slug. Yuck! I almost yelled, and then dropped the slug. I had to hunt for it with a flashlight and then send it flying out of the tent.

Hannah and I went to a Junior Ranger talk, and she can now name the five kinds of Pacific Salmon. She asked lots of questions, too, and has added Junior Ranger to her list of things that she wants to be when she grows up. I think this may have been the highlight of her trip. We played a lifecycle game, where everyone was assigned a card as part of the salmon lifecycle: salmon, or predator, or body of water, etc. My brother-in-law was assigned "Fry", a tiny stage of life for salmon. I was assigned "Great Blue Heron": the major predator for Fry. Excellent ... nothing like having your brother-in-law as your key prey.

There's more, of course, but that will do for now.