Roughin' It!

Do you remember your first camp-out? I can't recall my first camping experience but I am sure that I will always remember our little family's first camp-out. It was a whole lot of fun packed into less than 24 hours. It all started with B waking up at 6:30am on Saturday morning. By 8:30 when R and RKA were awake I had hatched the idea to actually go to a campground (we had been planning to camp in the backyard). By 10am our car was packed and we were headed to Harrison.

By noon we had struck out at three different campgrounds, RKA and I were testy and the kids were ready to get out of the over packed car. We found a spot near the swimming lagoon and unloaded one red wagon, two eager kids and tons of sand and water toys. It was a great afternoon at the beach topped off with rainbow ice cream cones so big that they were dripping faster than the kids could eat them.

It really was fun but there was a question hanging in the air all afternoon - where were we going to pitch our tent??? We took one more stab at the provincial campground but had no luck. We reluctantly headed home to unpack our car and camp in our backyard. But we had one more try...Kilby. Crisp clean Harrison Bay, train bridge nestled between lush green mountains...such a gorgeous spot.

The campground at Kilby was also full, but the ranger dude must have took one look at our jam-packed car and our kids' expectant faces and he couldn't turn us away. He let us camp practically on the beach for $10. Look at these happy faces! It was the ideal spot for us.

It even had a hammock on the beach. How fun is that?


So at 4:30 pm RKA and I unpacked our car, pitched our tent, and inflated our air mattress while the kids jumped on the air mattress, frolicked on the beach, and swung in the serendipitous hammock. Okay, so RKA did most of the former while I was supervising the latter but we were both contributing, right!

By 6:30pm we were all starving so we rocked it out caveman style and collected rocks to build a fire pit and started a fire with twigs (and old coupons found in the car). R thought that building the rock fire pit was the most fun part about camping. Don't worry, we did have a bundle of $10 firewood from the General Store to keep it going!

Of course, dinner was roasted hot dogs and s'mores. (I wonder, is that just a Canadian phenomenon or is it the universal camping menu ?)

By 9:30pm the kids were sleeping and RKA and I spent a couple of hours around the fire catching up. We flopped down on the family air mattress at midnight where we spent several hours tossing and turning with R & B in between us. It was simultaneously so cozy and so uncomfortable!

Not to worry, it did not last long. When the 4am train came whistling through the mountains it felt like it rumbled right through our tent. It woke the kids up and when they saw that they were still camping they were so excited! They had a little dance party on the air mattress waking us up immediately and shortly thereafter the entire campground. By 5am our tent was collapsed, our air mattress was deflated, and our car was packed and we headed back to the comforts of home!