Suburban Camping

The funny thing about being a parent is that you never know when you are going to learn something about yourself from your kids. 

Our original plan for the weekend was to drive five hours south into Mexico to go camping on the Sea of Cortez, but the closer we got to our departure date, the more Chris and I dreaded the adventure. We just couldn’t get ourselves excited about the road trip or the amount of prep it was going to take to get us there. Plus, I wasn’t looking forward to the endless whining and military check points, let alone the fact we still didn’t even know where we were going to stay. 

In my imagination, I would relax in a lounge chair, reading a magazine, while my children played with nature all around me. They would never fight or grow bored, even if they did get a bit loud. In my imagination, no one would ever need to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night or take a shower. We would all sit around the warm campfire at night roasting marshmallows and singing camp songs, but no one would cover themselves with sticky melted marshmallow, and then get paper towel stuck to their face and hands trying to clean themselves up. Everyone would sleep great with all the fresh air, and no one would wake up in pain from sleeping in a tent.

As the day approached, I remembered that in reality, camping with kids is a lot of work. You spend the better part of a day packing for the trip and trying to cram it into your car. Then you drive to camp and have to unload all the crap that you HAD to have with you and set up the tent, all while trying to keep your kids from stabbing each other with sticks. You have a couple of fun-filled days revolving around playing with fire and dirt, but not at the same time, before you have to take everything down, pack it all up, and once again make it fit in your car.

In the end, we just couldn't make that trek to the Sea of Cortez.  Chris and I wussed out and opted for a lamer version of our original ambitious weekend getaway: suburban camping in California, fifteen miles from our own backyard.

Nestled between I-805 and Hwy 54, the campground we chose let us sleep in a tent and pretend we were communing with nature while giving us all the pleasures of suburbia. We swam in the heated pool, played on the elaborate and well-maintained playground, and dined on take-out pizza. The not-so-distant swooshing of cars speeding down the interstate created a calming blanket of noise to overcome those pesky sounds of nature. It was lovely, and the boys were in heaven.

While it may not have been the adventure that we had originally planned, I learned that I still like suburban camping much better than “roughing it” camping. I like hot showers, flushing toilets, paved roads, dog parks, playgrounds, heated pools and Target just around the corner. Goshdarnit, we slept in a tent, and that’s all that matters.

I also learned that even if it’s beautiful, 75-degree, t-shirt-wearing weather during the day, it will still be a frigid 40 degrees when the big ball of fire that heats the earth goes to bed. Because February is tricky like that. However, shivering burns a lot of calories – best exercise program ever. You can do it while you sleep. And, I learned that two pairs of pants, thermal underwear, a t-shirt, a long sleeved shirt and a jacket is the amount of clothes it takes to keep my kids from complaining about the cold.

While the boys and I were thawing out inside the car, I learned that even if you think a toddler cannot possibly lose something important inside a car, and therefore there is no harm in him holding it, you are wrong. It required three hours, power tools and expert fishing skills to retrieve the lost item from the inside of the door. I also learned that even the use of power tools will not make a husband happy about having to take off the door panel.

I learned that little boys thrive when given freedom outdoors. It’s not every day that I let them play in the road.

 

Most importantly, I learned that we have too much camping crap. This I learned, because my husband told me so, at least 15 times. 

I’m a quick learner.