Camping!

 

Our first camping trip in about...four years!  We went with our buddies, Julie, Nate, and furry friend River.  It was high time we tried out all our new gear! We had a never been used sleeping bag, tent, mess kit, stove, and camping chairs just aching to get out of their tags and be put to good use.  Since it was our first time in a while and we didn't know how the puppies would do, we stuck pretty close to homme and just went to South Whidbey State Park, about an hour south of us.  We got an early start and spent the day exploring the south.  We hiked around Saratoga Woods for a while before heading into town and checking out Langley.  We explored the town and had lunch at a nice dog friendly outdoor cafe.  We continued our journey to the campgrounds, with a trip to the dog park and the off leash beach on our way.  By the time we got to the campgrounds, the doggies were beat!  We set up camp and Julie whipped up a tasty potato corn chowder with garlic bread, and peach cobbler for dessert.  It was delicious!  We played some Star Fluxx and Banangrams and then took a short stroll down to the becah for sunset pics.  We had the usual campfire fare of smores later (I discovered a wonderful substitute for marshmellows...banana!) before calling it a night.  Gromit did not like the popping fire at all, so between the stress of that and the activities of the day, he was quite ready to crawl in the tent and head to bed.  It started raining at some point in the night, quite hard, with thunder and everything, and wasn't supposed to let up the next day, so instead of sticking around camp, we quickly packed up in the rain and headed home for breakfast : )  Camping close to home for the win!  We'll try again in September :)