Camping, for real.

After our semi-camping experience a couple of weeks ago, Matt ordered a tent. We were itching to try it out, so in honor of our 11th anniversary, we took an impromptu trip this weekend.  We went down to a section of Wayne National Forest at Lake Vesuvius near Ironton, Ohio. Matt wanted to try this campground because it had tent-only walk-in sites, so you park about a hundred feet away from where you camp. I was sold on the fact that it had electric walk-in sites because it was HOT (but not as hot as it was in Columbus).

The view from our campsite. We'll go back in the fall and follow this trail further. It was too hot to hike too much this trip.

 

 The boardwalk path at Lake Vesuvius. I was disappointed because the road to the beach was washed out and that wasn't posted on the website. They said we could hike there and we tried, but it was way too far with the kids and the gear. We stopped and the kids went in the lake just off the trail, but it was kind of gross and stressful, so I didn't take pictures.

 Chillin by the fire.

 We're calling this weekend a learning experience. We forgot the stove, so we had to cook over the open fire, which wouldn't have been so bad except that building a fire to make coffee in the morning would have been easier after several cups of coffee.

 Justin did this a lot. He made and played in mud. The other boys did, too, but with Justin it was a repetitive full body experience.

 

 Which led me to do this in order to get Justin clean enough that we could ride into town to go for ice cream.

 And then Justin did it all over again. He played in the tub for like a half hour while we struck camp this morning. Then I put on the last clean outfit and carried him directly to the car where he sat (with the a/c running) for half an hour while we finished packing.

We endured a rainstorm, very loud cicadas and a nosy raccoon, but the campground was really great. Exactly what Matt was looking for. It was my first real camping experience and I'm pretty sure I complained non-stop all weekend, especially since the stuff I had planned didn't work out and I don't do well on the fly. But in hindsight, back in the comfort of my air conditioned, bug free house, I can say that it was pretty successful overall. We were only 10 miles from the Ohio River and we drove around a lot. We found a splash park to cool the kids off at since the lake was a bust. And we drove back and forth to Kentucky a lot just because the bridges were cool. On our way home today, we followed the river to Portsmouth and went through about a dozen little river/mining towns. Matt and I just think the river/hill/farm topography is really cool, although we are very glad that we don't live in any of those little towns! Some of them were whiskey tango yikes.

We were supposed to again camp in August, but I'm thinking of moving the reservation to September, so we can hike more and sweat less. Overall, though, I'm really glad we got the heck out of Dodge and didn't spend our anniversary weekend holed up in the a/c dodging the neighbor kids.