We planned a camping trip with Mary and Dale this summer. We were going to head back up towards Estacada, at Prometory Park, but by chance I investigated Silver Creek Falls. I had heard getting a reservation at a state park was difficult so I wasn't hopeful that I would find much, especially in the world of "staycations". But next think I knew we had two campsites at the park for a weekend in August.
Mary and I planned, we made lists, we discussed food, we purchased pie irons,and we hoped for cooler weather (last year we camped during the hottest days of summer and were almost miserable) and we felt ready.
We were leaving on a Friday afternoon, my boys had gone to the opening day of fair in the morning. When they got home, we put the finishing touches on packing and then sat down for a few minutes before we left. As we got up to leave, Jackson spewed his fair food all over the coffee table and several spots on the floor on our frantic rush to the bathroom. Argh - now what? He didn't have a temperature, felt fine after he got that junk out of his belly so we did what any other rational parent would do...got in the car to take off for a weekend of camping. Our reasoning was were were close enough to home that we could always come home if his sickness continued.
And then Friday afternoon traffic hit us about 15 minutes into our drive. Are you kidding me?! The 70 minute drive was quickly turning into the 2 plus hour drive! In the car, we were talking about the priorities in getting camp set up before it got dark, building a fire so we could feed the kids. It wasn't a relaxing start to a camping weekend.
Although Ginger didn't mind being in the car, as long as she could be close to Mike.
But we got to the park, we set up camp, started a fire and settled in. The boys rode their bikes, the parents sat around the fire. We ate yummy burgers and hot dogs started becoming one with nature.
And of course there were s'mores.
Saturday the boys participated in the junior ranger program. They learned about the creatures that live in the creek, they saw crawfish, bugs and slugs.
Mary and I walked around the camp ground checking out other people's camp sites, looking at tents we liked, how people had things set up. We call it the Parade of Camp Sites - similar to the Parade of Homes.
We headed off on the bike trail in search of the falls, the boys on their bikes and the adults on their feet. But the bike riding didn't last long once we started to asend the 4 mile path...up hill. My boy was too tired, so we headed back to camp. More bike riding around camp, and more sitting around by the parents. That's how camping is suppoosed to be, right?
We ate what turned out to be great food with our pie irons. And we had FAB-U-LOUS dessert..home made ice cream! I'm not even kidding - the boys made ice cream by playing with a ball!! And it was SOOO yummy. We felt like we were eating like kings the whole weekend.
We hiked around camp more, explored. The boys made swords out of sticks, Jackson imagine Star Wars in the woods.
Saturday night, Mary and Dale went to hear the scoop on scat as our family settled in for the night. Saturday night we put everything away except the garbage. In the middle of the night we heard wrestling, Mike opened the tent to see the raccoons taking off with pieces of our garbage. I was sure they sounded big enough to be bears. alas they were just beedy eyed varments.
Sunday we ventured off on another hike, but the falls still eluded us. We did see lots of ant hills - huge, gi-normus ant hills, but no falls.
We ate lunch, and started to break camp (makes me sound like an official camper - right?). And headed home.
We didn't get to the falls, but we had a great weekend. And made lots of memories.
