Into the woods, part 1
We are back from our long weekend camping near the Delaware Water Gap, and we had a wonderful time. I took two days off work so we could leave Thursday afternoon when the kids got home from school. That gave us three nights of camping. We did our level best to make the most of our time.
Every camping trip begins with an epic packing process. We have a secret talent that I'm revealing only this once: We can summon rain. Lots of it! All we have to do is start packing for a camping trip. This was the scene as we started loading up the van:
By the time the kids were home and the van was fully loaded, I couldn't even see out the back window. Note that Maria was in her seat in the third row for this picture... can you see her? Me neither:
We stayed for the weekend at Triplebrook Campground, a working farm and campground right at the southern end of the Delaware Water Gap national park. This is our campsite on Friday morning, once we had everything in place:
We stayed in a rustic cabin, which contained a double bed, bunk beds, a table, a dorm fridge, and a ceiling fan with light. That's it. Cold running water outside, and bathrooms up the road. Someday we'll have a pop-up trailer; meantime, we like all the trimmings of tent camping except for the part where you sleep on the ground.
The drive took just under two hours. We arrived at dusk, did some minimal setup - stealing back our site's picnic table from an adjacent site, for instance - and built a fire. The campground was incredibly quiet, since it's still early in the season and we had arrived on a weeknight to boot. We all crashed and got a pretty good amount of sleep for the first night in a new place.
Friday morning we woke up and set about upholding a Sperger family camp tradition: Pancakes. Chels slept in a bit, and I worked with my little helpers to turn dry mix into buttery gold:
In the next post: Mountains, creeks, frogs, and mini golf!
Every camping trip begins with an epic packing process. We have a secret talent that I'm revealing only this once: We can summon rain. Lots of it! All we have to do is start packing for a camping trip. This was the scene as we started loading up the van:
By the time the kids were home and the van was fully loaded, I couldn't even see out the back window. Note that Maria was in her seat in the third row for this picture... can you see her? Me neither:
We stayed for the weekend at Triplebrook Campground, a working farm and campground right at the southern end of the Delaware Water Gap national park. This is our campsite on Friday morning, once we had everything in place:
We stayed in a rustic cabin, which contained a double bed, bunk beds, a table, a dorm fridge, and a ceiling fan with light. That's it. Cold running water outside, and bathrooms up the road. Someday we'll have a pop-up trailer; meantime, we like all the trimmings of tent camping except for the part where you sleep on the ground.
The drive took just under two hours. We arrived at dusk, did some minimal setup - stealing back our site's picnic table from an adjacent site, for instance - and built a fire. The campground was incredibly quiet, since it's still early in the season and we had arrived on a weeknight to boot. We all crashed and got a pretty good amount of sleep for the first night in a new place.
Friday morning we woke up and set about upholding a Sperger family camp tradition: Pancakes. Chels slept in a bit, and I worked with my little helpers to turn dry mix into buttery gold:
In the next post: Mountains, creeks, frogs, and mini golf!
