Camping

We went camping yesterday.

We went to a campground that was about 1/2 hour away. It was packed since this was the last real camping weekend of the season... and what a beautiful weekend it was. I took 4 vacation days and I think the weather gods took pity on me and my overwhelming schedule, so they blessed us with amazing weather on my days off.

We stayed in the tent section with our pop up camper because our friends had tents. Since there were no other tenters, we had the whole section to ourselves - it was perfect.

We only stayed one night, but it was still fun.

I had this whole dilemma about all of our dishes, etc. that we keep stocked in the camper - they are so plastic. When we got the camper a year and a half ago, I went to the dollar store and bought all the stuff to stock it - plates, cups, bowls, silverware, etc... and I'm kicking myself now. I was conscious then, but I still made that excuse for myself without even realizing it - the one about how you know you shouldn't be supporting something (like the dollar store), but you really don't have a lot of money and it's so much more affordable.

So now I am stuck with all of this plastic stuff that I don't want to just throw away, but I don't want to use. I mean, we only go camping a few times a year, it can't hurt us. But I really want to switch over at some point to thrift store finds... later.

Anyway, the campgrounds are fun with lots of stuff to do. There are often organized events, and last night there happened to be trick or treating.

It was fun to have a chance to walk around the RV campground and check out all of the campers... but the trash issue came up and inside I was quietly freaking out. So much trash with trick or treating!! It's not even just the wrappers, it's the little plastic toys, the plastic ziplock bags that people put the already wrapped in plastic candy... even the plastic lawn ornaments.

Yes, people even decorated their camper plots for this event. It was a tiny bit surreal if you haven't been to campgrounds like this. Ok, even if you have been to them.

It got really cold at night, but we brought plenty of blankets and dressed warm.

In the morning we enjoyed a nice breakfast together.

And we only fought over the camping chairs a few times.

We were able to keep this trip almost waste free. There was this plastic that we had to throw away that was wrapped around the wood that we had to buy at the camp store - there is a law that you can't bring firewood in to campgrounds. Some of our friends had some trash from wrappers for some food, but that is unavoidable unless you are specifically having a zero waste camping trip (which isn't a bad idea).

The kids had fun on the playground while the older kids played basketball on the basketball court.

There was even this really cool giant checkerboard even.

It was a good little overnight that I plan on doing more often in the spring. 


We packed up this afternoon and headed back home.
But the day was so beautiful that I just couldn't let it slip by. And although I did take a nap that was really difficult to wake up from (I took a nap!), we still took a walk and got a little fishing in.

Somehow, the leaves are all little more colorful than they were before we went camping yesterday. It's always amazing how that happens so suddenly every year...