Belated Camping Details..

Stephen and I (and Oliver) had a great time this past weekend on our camping trip to the Catskills. The funny thing is that if I give you all the details, it could actually be classified as the worst trip we have been on.

Stephen carefully chose our spot way in advance, to make sure that it was off on it's own and nice and private. Unfortunately the map the campground has online (you have to make reservations as this state park .. ) is very misleading. The site that looked so private and secluded online, turned out to be right across from the campground entrance, one of the bath houses etc. You can see all that in the photo below. Stephen was devastated. Also, the campsites are right on top of each other... you can see that in the photo above. I had a migraine both days, I took medicine and they went away pretty fast but it still left me a little weak feeling. The second day a troop of Boy Scouts moved into the sites next to us on Saturday (loud teenage boys - aaahhh the peace and quiet of the wilderness). We got rained on twice on Saturday.. the first time while we were preparing our dinner over the fire.. the rain dampened our charcoal that we were cooking over but as we watched the promising orange glow we were excited by the idea that it had to stop raining eventually and when it did our food would probably be perfectly cooked!! Not so.. it didn't get cooked enough to eat .. the first time ever that our campfire meal didn't work. I could go on but I am going to switch gears here.

Despite all of the above that made out trip seem like an unfortunate series of events, we had an amazing time. See, that's just how nature starved we Brooklyn dwellers have been lately. Nature STARVED. I won't lie, when we arrived and saw that our spot was steps from the entrance we were not thrilled.. there were a couple of forced moments. But we both agreed that "it is what it is" and as the campground was booked solid, it wasn't like we could do anything to change it. So we resolved to have a good time to matter what and we did. We drank in the smell of the fallen leaves all around us - heavenly. When our dinner didn't work out we shrugged, started another fire after the rain let up, and pulled out the leftover hot dogs from the night before. We had a no make-up no shower weekend, which felt amazing in the crisp cool weather (meaning we were not all sweaty and sticky and gross). We heard owls at night, actually the first time I have ever heard one in the wild. We saw a huge black bear on our way home. He/she was walking next to the road until someone honked their horn and he/she turned and ran back into the safety of the forest.

If this trip taught me anything it's that Stephen and I are desperate to be near mountains and wooded areas. We fit pretty well here in the city but I am constantly reminded that we truly belong in a more rural area. Or at least within easy driving distance to said rural area, and no the fight to get out of the city and on your way north is not an "easy driving distance". One of these days .. we hope :) Despite my list of unfortunate details at the beginning of this post, please believe me when I say we both had an incredible time !! It wasn't the blue ridge (my personal fav) but it was time away from the city, outdoors, with my best friend and that is worth more than anything I can think of at the moment.

And now.. the tour..



Our sweet set up. We are very minimal campers and usually have no air mattress or camp stove. We like to rough it. This trip we had my birthday camp stove and we actually brought out air mattress with us. Good decisions both.



Stephen makes a mean breakfast, complete with espresso !!!



The fruits of his labor. My fried eggs (egg whites only of course - for those of you who don't know I can't eat the yellow part) pan toasted English Muffin with strawberry jam and plenty of bacon. So good!


A very sleepy Oliver waking up in the tent and ready for his walk.



Our Saturday hiking trip. We didn't go the whole way because frankly we just didn't feel like tiring ourselves out and we wanted to enjoy part of the day at the site. We did go far enough to find a fantastic lunch spot and sit for awhile and enjoy the surroundings.



Beautiful. Not another human being in site.



My "thousand mile stare". I did that a lot. It takes awhile for me to fully decompress.



Last but not least.. my boys relaxing by the fire. Oliver got himself into that chair and curled up for an afternoon nap. What can I say ? Even our dog knows how to kick back!