Campout!

This weekend we hit the "wilderness" with our friends Diane and Brian and their little girl Sydney! (and their dog Mitch!!)

Now, you must understand that in our local area, "wilderness" does mean that you are surrounded by nature, but it also means that you're only 3 minutes from civilization (and a mini-mart!). We were actually camping on another local base that has tons of housing for Yokosuka sailors as well as a large wooded area with camp sites and paintball and a hiking trail.

Since we are usually surrounded by traffic and urban sprawl, it was actually really nice to go to bed without ambulances driving by all night and with the sound of tree frogs singing us to sleep. (though I'm pretty sure we all agreed that we could have done without the noisy crows who visited around 5 a.m.)

The campsites are designed to hold up to 20 people, so they are very spacious and also come complete with a fire pit and charcoal grill! Diane was afraid that it might be too "wimpy" to bring air mattresses on our camping trip, but I quickly assured her that - being 30 weeks pregnant - I was going to make sure that I had a comfortable night sleep, even if I had the bring the mattress off of our own bed!! Though I really like the idea of people thinking that I am ultra-super-rugged, I do have to admit to bringing a few comforts of home along on our camping escapade. (including our air mattress!)

The meals we planned worked out really well! We enjoyed hamburgers and hot dogs along with grilled veggies and corn on the cob. We even saved enough room for s'mores and campfire blueberry cobbler. (a recipe Diane got from her brother's old boy scout days!) For breakfast, we had baked oatmeal with all the fixin's and that was yummy too.

All in all it was a fun and relaxing time out in the wilds of the city!! (and we had just enough time on Sunday afternoon to start another house project...more on that later!)