Summer Camp(ing)

We squeezed in 2 nights of camping at Cuyamaca Rancho SP last week, just before the price went up to $30 a night for a tent site. I think people will still want to camp there, since it is so close to SD and a great place to get away. JT loved everything about camping, but he super-duper-uper liked the 'water hole' which are actually part of a small series of waterfalls where you can play in the pools. We had a little spot all to ourselves for two days where he splashed, built a couple dams, watched leaves and twigs float down, spotted tadpoles, and slipped on moss. It was really perfect.



We also had a ritual camping bath-in-a-plastic-container for Baby SJ,



 smores, Uno, hobo dinners one night and Austrian schnitzel and fried mushrooms the next (at Franz's restaurant on Cuyamaca Lake), a jaunt to Julian for apple pie, and pesky squirrels...



And as we got up in the morning to leave the zipper of the tent disintegrated - perfect timing! We really need a new tent since there are now 4 of us. Once upon a time the 'cathedral' was just right for the 2 of us , but it appears to have gotten smaller over the years (especially since Mr. Burli insisted that we sleep on the blow-up mattress this time - which we originally bought for camping, tried out once, decided it wasn't that comfortable and then subjected various guests to until we somehow became the owners of 2 futons). We nicknamed the tent the cathedral, because when we went backcountry hiking and slept a few nights in our backpacking tent, which is very, very small, the dome tent seemed as vast as St. Stephen's in Vienna. And chilly, too, on cold nights, since your breath had to warm up such a large volume of air.

But I will be sad to part with the insta-set dome tent - my German sister K and I travelled from GA to CA with that tent - stopping at campgrounds to quickly pop up the tent and perfecting the squeeze -back-into-the-bag the next morning.