I'm Home!

I am home from camping and soooo happy about it. On Friday we drove up the the Santa Barbara mountains and checked into our camp site. We brought a crazy amount of stuff, but I always felt like I was missing something... oh wait, I was, my house!

Things I learned while camping:

1. Pitching a tent fresh out of the package is a little embarrassing. Every pole and stake is wrapped in plastic, which is a challenge when you are trying to limit your trash. Our tent was sweet though, it had a "porch" that had a mosquito net to keep the bugs out.









2. My bug repelling candle was the best $10 I spent all week, even though my friends made fun of me for bringing it. As soon as the sun went down and the bugs came out they agreed it was brilliant.










3. Chopping wood is hard! Sabrina bought a brand new ax for the camping trip and she wanted everyone to try. I did it once, but I was too scared I would throw my back out or lose a toe.

4. Cooking is a challenge outside no matter how prepared you are. I pre-packed salmon and corn to BBQ the first night and brought all kinds of essentials for cooking, but it felt like every five minutes I was saying "Syd can you help me find this?" or "What can we use instead of...". Luckily Syd and Sabrina are pro fire starters.









Me cooking over the fire.












5. The CA drought is real. I only had to cancel softball practice twice this year because of rain and I never realized the impact until camping this weekend. Our camp site was super dry and dusty and there was NO water running in the river bed. Our plan was to swim and fish right outside our camp site but we had to drive 20 minutes up "river" to find any water. What we found was a little puddle to swim in. Syd was able to catch and release three little fish but nothing super exciting.





I had fun hanging out with my friends this weekend but this weekend reinforced my feelings about camping. Not for me. I am more of a day trip to nature type of girl. Anyone want a tent with a porch? I am having trouble fitting it back in the bag.