A Camping We Will Go

We leave Saturday morning for Alex Bay. There are a few things I didn’t realize about camping until  tried to plan this trip–

1. There are marshmallow varieties. We have a bag of regular, a bag of marshmallows covered in toasted coconut, and Mark is trying to find a bag of the huge marshmallows. All of this for three people. Because we couldn’t decide on what we wanted more. And the regular ones were on sale.
2. Camping is expensive. At least the first time. All of that talk before about saving money? Hahaha.. what was I thinking? We could have stayed in hotel for the price of all the gear we needed. Of course, we won’t have to spend this much again, and we won’t have to buy much food for the trip, but still, it was way more than I initially expected to pay.
3. Modern camping is not really camping. My idea of camping still stems from the idea that you are out in the wilderness, sleeping in a sleeping bag on the ground. Everything is cooked on a stick over a fire, and you bathe in the nearby stream. Incidentally, I would not do that type of camping. I am a wuss. So, instead… We have a king sized air mattress, lanterns, cast iron cookware, and we are staying within a couple hundred feet of a bathroom and showers. We even have a little fan for inside the tent.
4. Which brings me to tents. Remember camping as a kid? Too many people, too small of a tent? Everyone was crammed in there. There was one door, that you had to crawl through (even as a kid). There were basically no windows, and you really hoped everyone had showered recently, and that no one had any of the beans with dinner.  This is our tent. It has huge windows, two full-sized doors, and is bigger than our kitchen. And we have a big kitchen.

   

   Our Tent– A 14′x14′ Small Home

5. Why do we need a huge tent, you may be asking? Because of the stuff you need to go camping. Not only do we have the bed, but we also have the coolers, pans, and chairs. Becca has her own little camp chair, Mark has a camping chair with a footstool. I have my moon chair. I elected not to get a camp chair, because I want to sit in comfort. I plan on setting up a lantern, some books, and a couple treats, and getting some reading done after Becca goes to bed, and in the early morning. Next year, however, we are upgrading to a hammock.

All of this is worth it, though. We are literally a short stone’s throw from the St. Lawrence waterway. I am placing the big windows so that they face the water, so that we get a nice breeze. There is swimming, of course. And Mark promises that he will catch us fish for dinner one night.

Just to give you an idea of how beautiful this place is, here are a few pictures I found online.

We leave in 6 days. And I cannot wait…

Tagged as: fun stuff, In the Life