Sunday, August 7, 2011

HELLO CAMPING!



Hello Camping! It has been a long time between camping trips for the Jacobs family. In fact it has been nearly a decade. So, with a little prompting from the kids, we went camping. Washington is full of great places to camp. None greater that Whidbey Island.
Whidbey Island is a small island in the Sound. Aside from being able to camp near the water, we selected Whidbey because you get to take Ferry to the island. This is a short ride, unless (as we found out) you are traveling on a Friday. Then the line to get on the Ferry is a two hour wait. What was to be a 2 hour trip quickly turn to a 4 hour trip. However, the views were worth the wait.
Now, Libby and I have always considered ourselves experienced campers and during our 10 year hiatus we viewed camping as though it were like riding a bike...once you know how you never forget. We were wrong.

We made many rookie mistakes. Including forgetting many essential items. Such as: a hatchet, a pocket knife, a flashlight, and forks. Now forgetting forks may not seem as essential as the other items unless you have ever attempted to eat a tin-foiled dinner with a plastic spoon. We also forgot how big our family has gotten. which meant we forgot to bring a tent big enough for all of us. This meant someone had to sleep in the van with Dupree. I drew the short straw and I was up all night listening to Dupree lick his balls, all night...literally all night. (It is true that he no longer has balls, so I'm not sure what he was licking.)
However, Libby was the 1st to rise and informed me that no matter what my night was like, her's was worse. She was sandwhiched between August and Sophie, while Eden was within striking range. Instead of listening to Dupree she listened to a baby from the camp next door cry all night...literally all night. In addition to the crying baby there was the sound of the buoy floating off shore with a sounding bell to warn ship they are approaching the cliffs. The sounding bells were charming when we arrived. At 2am the were like a chinese water torture.
Despite the sleepless night and all we forgot, the kids smiled the entire time. Which made the trip the greatest camping trip ever. After all, we remembered the marshmallows and the "nicorice"!
Fair well Camping! We'll see you next year...or in ten years.

3 comments:

  1. That is so funny - we went camping last weekend for the first time in a loooong time. We purchased our tent on our way out of town (nothing like putting it together with the instructions out and the box it came in to make you feel cool), and then forgot at least half of the ingredients for each of our meals. It's pretty pathetic when you need a grocery store for each day of the trip. It is fun, though. The kids love it.

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  2. Matt not shocked that you only had half of what you needed on a camping trip.... You did the same thing when we went to Ryder Lake... "I don't need a can opener, Dusty will have that." "Ryan won't eat all of his poptarts."

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  3. Funny post! Maybe not for the people involved, but for us readers it was supper entertaining. Ear plugs are the only way I can sleep while camping.

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