ka ka ka Camping!

We went CAMPING last weekend - and I'm still riding high off it! ~ even after the mega emotional shake-up on Sunday, when driving back to Vegas. We just had TOO. MUCH. FUN! It also happened to be one of California's hottest summer weekends thus far, BUHHT our campsite, chosen totally blind, online at random by my honey-man (meaning we had ZIPPO- ZERO IDEA as to what we were gunna get before we got there) was PERFECTLY shaded with a couple large trees and generous bushes (wild flowering baby's breath!) creating a great deal of privacy compared to other campsites and well spaced from other campers. It also had a rather large open area for the fire pit.

Most importantly, our campsite was placed beside a sweet little river (a 'creek' by midwestern standards) for our cool-down pleasure/needs and pure enjoyment. It even had several thigh-deep, even above waist-deep pools for tooling and floating about. It was like a lil' oasis.

Another delightful aspect of our trip was that there wasn't any visible smog! Only 2 hours from L.A. and the air seemed clear - a trek up the mountain revealed we were still enveloped, BUHHT it wasn't even half as bad as back in the city, that's for sure. The skies were GORRRgeous and the stars at night? We'd sit beside one another in our camp chairs by our campfire, well past 11pm, necks craned backwards, staring up into the starry heavens! All weekend long, we felt truly fortunate - - even when the weekend temperature proved to be a bit unkind.

Our 2nd night though, sitting by the fire once again (I soooo LOVE campfires! - and fire in general), with the angel boy-O already fast asleep inside the tent, we both suddenly thought and spoke aloud at the same time,
"It's so hot still - what time is it?" We then both had the same idea and went to the Matrix to check the time and the exterior thermometer's reading - it was after 10:30 at night and it was 94 degrees?!? A couple hours later, we retired to the tent for some shut eye and the rest of that night was miserably hot and sweaty - - Even still, we had a splendidly successful camping experience!




One of the many things I love most about camping - besides all the wildlife, the hiking and trails, campfires and camp lanterns, flashlights, sleeping outside, the starry nights, the sounds of the outdoors, both day and night, all the fresh air - is camp out food!!! I love camping snacks and camp cooking! Trail mix! Tinfoil dinners! BBQ beans! Hot chocolate! Campfire angel cake! Granola! Fruit leathers! Thick French toast! Very-bad- for-you fatty fried breakfast meats! Campstove scrambled eggs! Smores! Roasted Marshmellows! Banana Boats! Roasted Veggie kabobs! Fruit salad! When we were preparing our foodstuffs the night before our trip, most happily (in a kinda neurotic way), I filled several itty-bitty so-cute mini-storage containers with minute measurements of whatever = butter, mayo, mustard, BBQ sauce, ketchup, shredded cheddar, peanut butter, blueberry jam, french toast spice, creamer, ground coffee and instant coffee (in case the aluminum camp percolator was a bust ~ And it didn't turn out to be! It was great!), and small bottles of milk and maple syrup, each with a "cool core" column of that blue icey stuff kept in the center - ? - do you know what I mean? Anyhow, I love the outdoor cooking aspect of camping A LOT! If I had to rank what I love most about camping, I'm not sure I could do it... I do know though that after ANY kind of camping trip, I rediscover my deep, deep appreciation for clean running water and indoor plumbing.