camping 101

Rob and I kicked off the long holiday weekend with Spiderman 3 and we both really loved it! Fortunately, driving around the Irvine Spectrum parking structure for nearly 30 minutes didn’t diminish the excitement of the movie. Rob thinks it’s the best of the three movies. I liked Superman Returns the best if I had to pick a superhero movie. While I was really excited to make cheddar potato soup for our camping trip (with our new Le Creuset French oven), I gave in and agreed to see Spiderman and Rob agreed to stop at H&M on our way home from camping – marriage is compromise, right? Alas, our French oven remains unused…

Saturday morning we woke up early to finish packing and gathering all our “gear” for our camping trip to Joshua Tree (or honeymoon #2 as I started referring to our trip). We packed little Charlotte to the brim – we wouldn’t have been able to add one more thing if we needed it. Thankfully, the camping checklist I found online was concise and seemed thorough, I felt prepared while Rob thought we slightly over packed. My moto – better to be too prepared than not prepared enough!

There were times over the weekend when I wish we had a video camera. It would have made for some funny video. First, we spent maybe an hour trying to figure out how to put the tent up. We were both pretty patient and calm considering the wind was a challenge and made it more difficult for us to figure out how to put the tent up. Our friends, Ken and Kelly, were nice enough to let us borrow the tent; unfortunately, it didn’t come with instructions, just Rob’s faint recollection of putting up this tent many years ago. Thankfully the campers around us seemed to not notice our struggle. After a while, God answered my desperate prayer and I took over to put the tent up (as Rob watched in disbelief). This gave us a good laugh and of course I was, and still am, totally proud of myself.

We only had a few minutes to recover from the tent pitching experience before we needed to start the campfire and prepare for dinner. Once again, Rob and I proved to be a great team as we struggled to build a campfire. Our perseverance paid off in the end with a blazing fire of glory! I couldn’t help but take this picture of Rob reading how to start a campfire on his Treo. Yes, we had a hard time starting the fire on Saturday night, but it was equal amounts of our lack of experience and the strong winds. On Sunday night, Rob got the fire started immediately! We were so proud! Two non-campers surviving in the wilderness! By the way, Chef Rob made some very delicious dinners both evenings and a yummy breakfast on Monday.

Sunday was an incredibly restful day. We slept until about noon, read, ate, went on a great hike with an amazing view, and made a great dinner. We even watched Bobby on our laptop in the evening, although it was hard to hear because of the wind and our battery died half way through.

Monday morning, after another kind of frustrating experience packing up the tent, we headed back to reality. Not without a quick stop to H&M at South Coast Plaza though. Thanks to Kristi’s 25% off email, we left with a bag of some goodies. I was so excited to get home, unpack, and finish the book I’ve been reading, Altared. This book is a great quick read comprised of short stories – “27 Writers Tell the Truth About Bridezillas, Bewilderment, Big Love, Breakups, and What Women Really Think About Contemporary Weddings”. I mean really, the cover is absolutely hysterical and caught my eye at Barnes and Noble. As a recent bride, I can attest to feeling this way occasionally.

Unfortunately, when we arrived home, we found out our kitchen faucet wasn’t working, which of course totally annoyed me. Anyhow, after unpacking, a quick rest, a shower, doing some dishes using the bathroom sink, and a load of laundry, we finished watching Bobby and hit the sack.

We had a great weekend and loved our camping adventure. We can’t wait to go again soon! Not before a trip to Hawaii and/or Chicago though. While I love roughing it, I also love room service!

Here are some more pictures…

And just to prove how windy it was, check out our tent…

Until next time…