Saturday - Camping Day Three

We now had the whole party present at the camp ground now, so when we got up this morning and had a full breakfast of sausage, bacon, hash browns, eggs made-to-order, fresh brewed coffee with Bailey's Irish Cream, and Mimosas. You have to admit that we know how to start the day off right.

Serving Breakfast:


Group Shot Enjoying Breakfast:



The next thing on the list was to move Heidi and her husband, Tony, and Alex down from the campsite next to the bathroom to the campsite next to the sloping site where Jill, Samantha, and I were located. (One little side note, poor Alex didn't sleep well because the air mattress he stole from me lost all of its air and by the middle of the night he ended up sleeping directly on the ground.)

After all of the rearranging of the campsites and cleaning up after breakfast, we put on our suits, gathered up our alcohol for the day and headed off to play on the lake. Luckily Alex had experience with his own boat at one time, so Jill had somebody helping her out with getting the boat on the water, the people loaded into it, and driving it around the lake so she could enjoy herself as well as the rest of us and not have to be on constant alert as to what was going on with the boat. While the day on the boat was pretty uneventful, in that there were no moments of Andrea falling off the boat and that is really what is really important here!! Okay, only kidding. Pretty much everybody took turns trying out the wake boards or knee boards, but the real hit was the giant inner tubes that were pulled behind the boat. Check out some of the photos from Saturday on the lake:

Group in the Boat


Tony and Alex Set for Tubing Battles


Heidi Being Swallowed by the Man-Eating Life Vest


Alex, Sam, and Jill in the Boat


A little after noon, we docked at a restaurant/bar on the lake and went in to grab a bite to eat. By this point my back had started to glow just a smidgen (even with the SPF50), so I was pretty happy to get off the lake for a while.

About 2:00 PM, we all piled back into the boat and decided to stop at one end of the lake and just float for a while so that we could all just relax and enjoy the sun and water. Check out all of us relaxing in the sun:

Alex Relaxing in the Tube


Sam and Heidi


Andrea Asleep in the Boat


We spent a nice long time just floating and chatting and sleeping. Eventually, we were visited by some water fowl, who it seems love to eat Cheetos and attack toes:

Jill's Toes, The Geese, and a Cheetos


Tony and The Geese:

About 5:00 we decided it was time to get off the lake and go take showers and have a bite to eat. So, Alex helped Jill get the boat anchored down, we all went to Miller's Landing and paid the $3 for 5 minutes of showers (I actually splurged and paid for 10 minutes.) We grabbed some more ice, firewood, and headed back to the campsite. Surprise, surprise, it had once again gotten dark out, so dinner (a wonderful tri-tip, garlic bread, salad, and corn on the cob) was cooked by lantern light, but it was still wonderful tasting.

I, unfortunately, became quite the victim of camping injuries on this night. I twisted my ankle, again, and ended up falling and sliding down the slope. I ended up with a bruise on the palm of my hand, scrapes and bruises on both knees, dust and dirt all over which was upsetting after just showering. I then was helping to clean up after dinner and was bringing the Coleman kerosene lantern over to the group. It was decided to turn it off, since we had plenty of light from the fire, sadly I didn't know how to turn it off and made the mistake of twisting the screw thingy on the top of the lantern, which was VERY hot and managed to burn my finger and thumb. I vaguely doing this before when I was a child and camping with my parents, but I survived then and I survived now....

Everybody was pretty worn out after the day of boating, so we turned in pretty early. Alex was still challenged with his flat air mattress, luckily Sam had blown up a floaty chair that was initially going to be used on the lake but Alex ended up using that as his sleeping chair. Sadly, we have no photos of Alex "sleeping" in the floaty chair with his Boise headphones that he needed to use to block out Tony's snoring.

Personally, I again loved falling asleep looking up at the stars through the skylight in the tent. Admittedly, I did say after falling and burning myself that I hated camping, but that was just tired, grumpy five-year-old Andrea coming out. I still greatly enjoy camping and look forward to my next trip.

Friday - Camping Day Two - Afternoon/Evening

So, the three of us head to the boat ramp to get the boat in the water and have "girl time".

Sadly, the first challenge was getting the truck and boat backed down the ramp. Luckily, a couple of very nice gentlemen offered to give us a hand, mostly because I think they didn't want to have to wait in line while we pulled forward then backed up and pulled forward again. Jill and I jumped on the boat and backed into the lake while Samantha drove the truck and the boat hitch thingy to park it and the plan was to meet us back at the dock. While Jill and I were floating around on the lake, we decided that we needed to cool off a bit and I did something that I haven't done in probably my whole life. I jumped off the boat and went completely underwater. (For those of you who are not aware, I have a slight 'issue' with having my face wet, to the point where I have to keep a towel in the shower with me to dry my face. I have always been the Queen of the dog paddle.) So, me jumping in the water straight off, going under water, and enjoying it was a completely new experience for me!!

We get back on the boat and head over to the dock. Jill gave me a quick lesson in tieing ropes and then handed me the rope to use to tie up the boat. Her words to me were "Hop onto the dock and cushion the boat." I say "Sure, not a problem." We approach the dock, I swing one foot over the side of the boat in preparation for "hopping". Understand, I don't "hop". I figured I would just "step" onto the dock. So, we approach, Jill tells me to hop, I step. My left foot is on the dock, my right foot is stuck in the seat cushions on the boat. Even though the boat is in neutral, there are wakes coming into shore and the boat starts to float away from the dock. I am now the human equivalent to the wishbone being pulled apart. I give Jill a look of complete fear and confusion. She, sadly, sadly can do nothing for me. Sam is too far away on the shore to do anything. I am stuck and being stretched, farther and farther apart. Finally, I have to make a decision. I remove my foot from the dock, slap into the side of the boat, my foot comes unstuck from the seat cushions, I yell out, and splash into lake. Yes, it was the quintessential boating physical joke. The good thing, I survived (only with a swollen ankle, which gave me trouble the rest of the weekend) AND I never let go of the rope to tie the boat off. Jill killed the motor, I swam around to the rear and pulled myself back into the boat laughing the whole time...

Whew, quite the excitement. The rest of the afternoon the three of us played on the lake, drank some champagne, ate some Cheetos, soaked up the sun, and shared stories. Sam learned how to drive the boat so that Jill could do some wake-boarding. Check out some of the photos:

Sam Learning to Drive the Boat

Jill and Sam

View off the Boat

Jill on the Wake Skate

Around 5:00 we decided that we were getting hungry (and you know I don't do well when I'm hungry because then I get grumpy) and decided to get off the lake. We anchored the boat near our campsite and swam into shore. Sam and I went and set up the tent for the guys since we didn't want them to have to deal with it when they finally got in (yeah, yeah, we are really nice). We then grabbed a change of clothes and headed down to Miller's Landing for showers and to grab a bite to eat. We still didn't have a grill or lights.

The tokens for the shower were $3 for 5 minutes. It is surprising how quickly you can learn to shower when it costs that much and the water is only cold. After the showers, we got burgers and shakes at the grill there and waited for Alex and Tony to arrive so that they could follow us out to the campsite since it was a little difficult to find.

After food, the five of us headed back to the camp site and started a fire. "Luckily" we still had some gasoline left over from when we had to fill up Jill's truck, so that was used to get the fire started (Kids, don't try that at home EVER). We made some cocktails, turned on some tunes, and kicked back. Somehow, Jill and I ended up dancing the night away.

Jill and Andrea Dancing

Eventually Heidi and her husband arrived with the lamps and the party kept going. Around elevenish, we finally wrapped it up and headed to bed. All in all (aside from the whole Andrea falling into the lake thing) it was a great first full day camping. At this point, I'm still liking camping!!

Next day of camping and boating coming soon....

Friday - Camping Day Two - Morning

6:00 AM I woke up so that I could be one with nature and watch the sunrise....

After watching the sunrise, I decided to take a look around the campsite, since it was now light and I could actually see where we landed. It seems that the raccoons had a lovely meal of hot dog buns and pistachio nuts, but luckily everything else had been safely tucked away so that no other foodstuff was ruined. The Taj Ma-Tent had been set up on a slope and we didn't take the time to stake the tent down the night before so it had stared to slide down the hill.

Around 6:30 - 6:45 Jill and Samantha crawled out of the tent and Jill put on some coffee. While we did not have the grill, we did have Jill's camp stove, so she started percolating the coffee and then threw on some sausage, bacon, and eggs. Check out the kitchen setup:

By 7:30 we were sitting down watching the sun over the lake eating a nice hearty breakfast, and can I say that there is something really great about eating food cooked in the great outdoors.

Sam then took off to check us in at the Ranger's office and stake our claim on the other campsite so that the folks that were arriving on Friday would have a place to set up their tent. Jill and I rearranged the tent so that it was sloping back to front rather than side to side. This way we would no longer roll out of our beds in the middle of the night. While Jill cleaned up the tent (sweeping, making the beds, etc.), I cleaned up and straightened the camp site, got all the rest of the stuff out of the trucks and did other putzing around. Check out the Taj Ma-Tent with the great maid service getting it all ship-shape.

At about 10 AM, camp was in shape and all of the paperwork was done so the three of us decided it was time to put the boat in the water. We put on our suits, climbed into Jill's truck and headed down to the boat ramp....

Come back soon to see what happens next!!