We decided to try to take the baby camping for his first time. I don't know why we did this because we really like being married to one another and don't necessarily go looking for added stress in our lives but last year the New Mexigonians (there's a bunch of New Mexicans who moved up here and a couple of Oregonians who have been absorbed into the group via marriage or friendship) had a great time and we thought it was a great idea to introduce the baby to the festivities.
The trip had been planned for over a month with a whole big group going. The closer it got to the weekend, several people started to bail on the trip and it ended up just being our little family coming for the first night and only 5 other people coming for the second. The destination was Hideaway Lake, a nice, small spot in the Mt. Hood National Forest. We'd been there before for Ben's birthday one year and it was a horrible experience. It rained the whole time, the tent got wet, a couple of people got completely soaked and it was just an all around miserable time. This year was going to be different.
But it wasn't.
First of all, we forgot so much stuff. As we were driving into Estacada, we realized we hadn't packed the chairs (sorry, I'm a wimpy camper and I need some chairs). We hadn't packed complete ingredients for meals. We didn't bring Little Babes any toys (he ended up throwing things, eating dirt and rocks, banging on the pots and pans, dragging the rope around and tormenting Petey). We had left the tarps in the other car.
Second of all, we couldn't even find Hideaway Lake. We drove around for 2.5 hours and 20 miles in the woods, looking for signs that weren't there and Forest Rt. signs that didn't exist. We did see the damage left from mud slides which was a tad disconcerting. After the drive (Little Babes was phenomenal the whole time. I was crankier than my 18 month old), we decided to go back down to the highway and go back to the other campgrounds and look for a spot. We ended up at the spot we were at last year, Fish Creek. It was a good site, the camp host said it was "the best," and we set up camp.
Again, Mr. Smalls was great. Yes, he wanted to get into EVERYTHING. I have since realized that traveling with a toddler is just that, traveling. It's not a vacation. A vacation will be when he is old enough to spend the weekend/week with Nana and Pop Pop or the Aunties in the Bay Area and Ababa and Emama can go to a different place to spend the weekend. But it wasn't horrible, it could have been worse.
However, when he was tired. OH MY. It was comical. He was rolling around in the tent, singing jibberish and saying, "Hi." He managed to fall asleep around 9:15-30ish. Ben and I barely made it up for much longer than that. When we woke up at 4:30am, it was raining and the baby was still asleep. We tossed and turned for a couple more hours and woke up to the rain really coming down.
Our tent was wet, there were leaks coming in and the baby was up and wanted to move around outside of the tent. We hadn't hung a tarp above us, we'd left a bunch of stuff outside on the table. We ended up packing everything up wet, in the rain and heading home. We paid for 2 nights and a bundle of firewood we never got. Plus we threw away our tent because it was filled with at least a gallon of water.
Next time, I think we'll sleep in a tent in the yard.
1 comment:
I'm always impressed with people that say they take their young kids camping, then I'm always feeling sorry for the same people. It sounds like a lot of work. And not much sleep. Nature is very important, but the camping thing will come with time. I actually look forward to it... someday.
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