Camping

I love camping. Let me repeat that - I LOVE CAMPING!

I love the smell of the woods - the richness of Pacific Northwest soil, created with fir needles, swordfern, moss, salal, and rotting nurse logs is pure ambrosia to me. I love waking up in the wee hours of the morning to hear birds cackling with glee - even the noisy, raucous bluejays make me smile. I love hearing nothing but the occassional pine needle falling on the tent in the middle of the night when all is still, when even a solitary pine needle falling is noticeable because of the stillness. I love getting up in the middle of the night to go to the loo, fumbling for a flashlight and a pair of flip-flops, and discovering that a million stars have come out to play while I was sleeping.

I love watching Tessa roast marshmallows, convinced that heaven is a place where you can roast sticky, messy, sugary treats on sticks over a fire without getting so much as a sideways glance from your parents (that does remind me to pack some wipes, though!). I love padding around in the morning bundled up in long underwear, making coffee (no need to go without just becasue we're in the woods!) on the propane camp stove.

I love sitting around in the middle of the day, with nothing to do but look at a good book, in the shade from the sun. I equally love throwing lunch into a backpack and exploring on foot, away from cars and all things mechanical or computerized. I love glances of wild animals - the cries of "oh look there's a fawn!" and "okay Mr. Raccoon you can come into our camp but stay AWAY from my chocolate" and "can you believe we saw a river otter - I love them!" mixed in with chattering about children's development, house projects, and the other mundane things that make up our lives.

I love that we're going to share this with friends, and that there is certain to be much laughter.

I love being warm and cozy in my sleeping bag at the end of the day, filled with the day's adventures, and fighting sleep because it just feels too good to miss a minute. I also love staying in bed as long as possible in the morning because it's so cozy and the day can wait!

We'll sit around a campfire with our children, watching them learn to love camping. And then we'll tuck them in bed, and we'll have a glass of wine, and we'll remember how relaxing camping can be for us.

Good, good times.

Of course, I still feel lousy but I don't care. I am not going to let this cold take over! Today I managed to get the grocery shopping done and to make the spaghetti sauce and to organize most of the camping stuff, and though I still have more to do I'm convinced, at last, that it will actually GET done. We're optimistic even enough to think that our family can go to C&P for a little hang-out time before Ryan heads to work (he'll join us after work) and Tessa and I meet the other moms & kids in the ferry lineup (we're headed to the peninsula).

Wish us luck!