Baby's First Camping Trip.

Our trip started off with a two hour drive and a 15 min ferry ride.

The weather was beautiful and the short ferry ride was quite pleasant.


The campgrounds were quite nice, and it's not exactly like we were roughing it. Close by there were washrooms with running water and toilets, coin operated showers that we didn't use, and even a small laundry mat (that we also didn't use).


There weren't really many bugs either. There was the odd wasp, a few tiny ants, and at one point there was a bit of an attack of termites that lasted a whole 5 min and I was the only one around to witness it.

Our accommodations were comfortable too. Yes, honey, I can see you all the way over there!

The ten man tent was quite roomy. We probably could have been fine with a smaller tent, but it was nice to be able to fit Cherry's whole playpen in there, along with our double size air mattress, all of our clothes and junk, as well as the dog bed and two dogs. The tent probably had about the same square footage as our master bedroom! I knew it was going to be large, and Armondo was disappointed that we only got a double sized air mattress when we could have fit something as large as a king in there, but I reminded him that if we got a larger mattress, we'd have to buy new sheets, 'cause the biggest bed we have at home is a double.



The canopy above the site was beautiful too. We were entertained by several squirrels who chittered, barked, and squeeked away as they jumped and ran from tree to tree. We don't see many squirrels close to where we live (even though we're quite rural), so I was quite amused while watching their antics.

After setting up camp the first day, we set out to the beach. Where we were, there were two beaches. One on one side was really rocky and less sheltered, and more "rough". We went there the first day.

Cherry spend the whole time lifting rocks and BOULDERS, and putting them into her yellow dump truck.
Practicing shot put for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Cherry wasn't overly impressed with the crabs I tried to show her. She was much more interested in playing with rocks. Annie on the other hand, chased the crabs all over the beach. (Sorry no pics of that.)

(Oh, and the hair do on Cherry? That's not the wind blowing it that way. That was her style for the day! Armondo combed it all backwards the night before when it was wet, and this is how it stayed for the whole next day. Poor kid!)

The first night went pretty well. Cherry went to sleep pretty easily at her regular bedtime, and Armondo and I stayed up only a bit later to play cards. The next morning, Armondo took the dogs for a run while I tried to put Cherry down for a nap. The nap didn't go as smoothly as bedtime the night before, and there was a huge struggle. I was exhausted due to having not slept perfectly the night before, and was close to tears when Armondo got back to the campsite. It wasn't until both dogs, Armondo and I were all laying down and being quiet did Cherry give into going to sleep for her nap.

Then we went to the other beach. This beach was more of a "swimming" beach, and it was quite beautiful. Again, Cherry played with the rocks and filled her truck up over and over, but her new trick was running away from us over and over. (The rocks were a bit easier to maneuver on this side than on the other!)
You can't catch me! Here I go!


The beach was kind of neat in that people had set up all these little driftwood forts.We set ourselves up in one and enjoyed the shade. And then I tried to take a picture with the three of us in it. As Armondo says "Nice crotch shot!"

More importantly, I got a cute shot of Cherry and I.

I figured that that night Cherry would go down without much of a fuss considering she had RUN around for hours at the beach. I was wrong though. She didn't fall asleep until about an hour and a half after her regular bedtime.

The dogs, on the other hand, were quite pooped!


Awww... aren't they cute?!?

The next day, after Armondo made breakfast and let me sleep in, we packed everything up and headed back home. The SECOND we left the campsite, half a dozen or so crows came down and gobbled up all the little specks of food we had left behind. Those crows had been watching us for HOURS!

And the next day, we returned our 10 man, $200 tent to Walmart.

Oh, don't think of me that way! We didn't scam them! The tent actually came with a small hole in one of the pole sleeves and when we were taking it down, we noticed several seams were separating. We'll buy a new one for camping next year for sure! We loved it!