Camping Report: Why We Keep Going
We keep going because I love the parts I love more than I loathe and fear the parts I loathe and fear. I hate being hot and sweaty. I hate going to bed dirty (at camp I get a basin of water and wash as much as I can in the dark, but I have to just go into denial about my feet and lower shins because there is no way to get those clean until we get home. I mean, I guess I could keep a bottle of water and a foot towel by the door of the tent, but even I'm not that anal. Hmm, now that I think of it, maybe I am that anal and just never came up with this solution before - making a note for next year. I hate not being able to do my hair. In past years I would shower every day and wash my hair every second day and dry it in the comfort station. This was cumbersome and didn't generate great results anyway. The stupid-hot year I realized there was no point showering because the showers are a set temperature that isn't hot enough for hot water lovers and isn't cool enough for heat haters, and it was not refreshing in the least. So this year I showered maybe twice and didn't wash my hair at all and didn't feel that much worse overall.
The parts I love: That the whole family is all together for a few days, with our really good friends. We sleep in a tent together, we get up and get ready for the beach and go to the beach together.
The pattern of our days is delightfully simple. I don't sleep too late because the tent gets hot. We get up, we have breakfast, we sit around for a bit, we pack for the beach, we go to the beach, we swim and hang out and read, we get ready for dinner, we have dinner, we sit around the campfire, we go to bed.: The way the sun comes down through the trees, especially when you're walking along the camp road to your site or someone else's.: Going to the beach at night to look at the stars and watch for falling ones - we're usually there during the Perseids, so it's often very rewarding.
Stupid beach and campsite challenges include beach bocce (occasionally a bird steals a ball and you have to chase it down), playing hangman with sticks and feet in the campsite dirt (this is very difficult, especially when Collette confuses 'A Lannister Always Pays His Debts' with 'A Lannister Never Forgets' - that's elephants, Collette, not Lannisters), limbo-ing under the clothesline, log-rolling, and standing in your doughnut in a manly pose while your bathing suit dries.
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Also possibly doing some kind of Broadway number   |
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