Now, before I start, you have to understand that I love to camp! I grew up camping with my family and my kids have all camped since they were babies. I am not a rookie camper or naive to the challenges that come with spending the weekend in the great outdoors. This trip however, runs a close second in the race for the worst camping trip ever (first being Hunting Island in May where two out of three kids had the pukes).
First, here's a picture of Luke as we packed the enormous amount of stuff that we need to camp these days. Our backpacking days are on hold and we fully embrace car camping and strive to fill every inch of our car. This is actually right before we crammed the rest of our stuff in and slammed the trunk to hold it all in place.
We were excited as we started on our way to Black Rock Mountain (in North Georgia). Chris was able to get off a little earlier than we had expected and with dreams of cruising peacefully through the 1 1/2 hours that it takes to get there we were excited to meet our friends who had left a couple of hours before us. I knew we were in trouble when we hit major traffic leaving the ATL. First, Chris does not do traffic. I don't mean that he doesn't handle traffic well. I mean he DOES NOT handle traffic at all. That's why we live where we can spit on the hospital. He can't stand commuting 5 mins. to work much less wrangling the 2nd worst traffic in the country. So, needless to say, 10 mins. into our trip he was furious and already saying that we should have just stayed home and driven up Sat. morning. No matter what I tried to talk about, his response had something to do with how terrible the traffic was and how he couldn't understand why people would want to torment themselves by living so far away and driving into work everyday.
Nice cheery way to start the trip! : )
Once we got there, it was almost dark and come to find out, our short "walk in site" was somewhat short but mostly up a steep hill. Wow, now there's nothing like hauling everything you own plus three small children up and down a hill in an attempt to get set up before it gets dark. In the midst of unloading our stuff, we stopped at the bathroom (also at the bottom of the hill) and noticed the big "Don't Feed the Bears" sign. It was followed by a long list of things that you had to do to make sure that you and your family were not eaten alive by a family of bears that apparently could smell the remains of the food that you had eaten on the carride up there. One of the things that it included was that you needed to haul all of your food/coolers down to your car ever time you left your campsite. Hmmm...sounds like a relaxing weekend ahead!
First, here's a picture of Luke as we packed the enormous amount of stuff that we need to camp these days. Our backpacking days are on hold and we fully embrace car camping and strive to fill every inch of our car. This is actually right before we crammed the rest of our stuff in and slammed the trunk to hold it all in place.
We were excited as we started on our way to Black Rock Mountain (in North Georgia). Chris was able to get off a little earlier than we had expected and with dreams of cruising peacefully through the 1 1/2 hours that it takes to get there we were excited to meet our friends who had left a couple of hours before us. I knew we were in trouble when we hit major traffic leaving the ATL. First, Chris does not do traffic. I don't mean that he doesn't handle traffic well. I mean he DOES NOT handle traffic at all. That's why we live where we can spit on the hospital. He can't stand commuting 5 mins. to work much less wrangling the 2nd worst traffic in the country. So, needless to say, 10 mins. into our trip he was furious and already saying that we should have just stayed home and driven up Sat. morning. No matter what I tried to talk about, his response had something to do with how terrible the traffic was and how he couldn't understand why people would want to torment themselves by living so far away and driving into work everyday.
Nice cheery way to start the trip! : )
Once we got there, it was almost dark and come to find out, our short "walk in site" was somewhat short but mostly up a steep hill. Wow, now there's nothing like hauling everything you own plus three small children up and down a hill in an attempt to get set up before it gets dark. In the midst of unloading our stuff, we stopped at the bathroom (also at the bottom of the hill) and noticed the big "Don't Feed the Bears" sign. It was followed by a long list of things that you had to do to make sure that you and your family were not eaten alive by a family of bears that apparently could smell the remains of the food that you had eaten on the carride up there. One of the things that it included was that you needed to haul all of your food/coolers down to your car ever time you left your campsite. Hmmm...sounds like a relaxing weekend ahead!
I will say that after the stress of settling in the first night was over, things were looking up. The weather was beautiful! The kids were able to hike and even though I missed the hike for Caleb's nap I did get to read magazines in total silence while everyone was gone. Now, that's a treat!!!
This is a picture of the 400 kids that we took camping with us. Okay so it's only 10 (including Caleb who is not pictured) but it sure felt like 400 at times. lol
Later that afternoon, Chris and I took the boys to explore around Black Rock Lake. It was so nice to be out and to watch Luke and Caleb play. It's a cold water lake so it actually has trout in it. Luke LOVED to watch all of the fish swim around and I'm pretty sure that he's trying to peg one with a rock in this picture.
This is a sweet picture of Chris with the boys!
So, after a beautiful day together with no one (child or adult) being eaten by a bear. We were tired and very excited to hit the tent. Unfortunately, after spending an hour and a half trying to get our kids to sleep, Caleb decided that he was going to get some GI bug that would last until the wee hours of the morning. Luckily, in the midst of having every piece of clothing that Caleb and I had doused in vomit and poop, Chris and I were able to laugh. Well, really we didn't have much choice. It was really such a horrific situation that you couldn't help but laugh just from shock and disbelief! So overall, our trip, though creating a few fun memories, will mostly just be that trip that we're glad is over. And hopefully our next round of outdoor adventure will have a little less of THAT kind of adventure...
