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A Camping Odyssey
Bonding on a Nine-day Camping Excursion
By Denise Steele-Darnell
Although we had now traveled up to Washington, our house wasn't ready so we continued on our journey. We went to Mt. Rainer and stayed at a gorgeous, secluded site. We had great weather and it was beautiful as we took several hikes together. Whitney was loving camping and all that it involves, especially the nightly marshmallow roasting and eating by the campfire. I was enjoying reconnecting with nature, and my husband was realizing that we had way too much stuff! Every day that we moved campgrounds he had to single-handedly cram all of our junk into the two cars. Basically, everything had to be put in the cars in such a specific order or one of us would be left behind. Even so, the vacuum was often bopping the dog in the head and the baggage and sleeping bags almost covered Ethan and Whitney in the back seat. With my son clinging to me, Steve had to pack the cars by himself each and every morning. He'd literally wake at 6 a.m. and at 11 a.m. we'd finally leave our campsite.
With only a few days left, we hopped on to the ferry up to the San Juan Islands and stayed at a gorgeous site overlooking the ocean at San Juan County Park. Although the teething and re-packing the car had worn us down, we were enjoying all the new places we were seeing, including this one. Ethan finally started playing again and he and Whitney loved being on the big grassy area overlooking the ocean as the sun went down. Although we had been able to return the big tent and get a new one, it turned out to be too much of an ordeal to put up and take down for each day. So in the end, my kids and I slept in the little two-person tent and my husband slept in the car with the dog and cat for the entire trip.