Canada Camping

The Canada Day camping trip has been an awesome tradition amongst my group of friends. I don’t remember the exact details about how it got started, but I am thankful it did.

This year was an interesting year. Sprout was definitely coming with us, but Gramma made us an offer we couldn’t refuse. Sprout stayed over at Gramma’s house which gave Sox and I time to set up camp without him.

This turned out to be a great luxury since we had to set up camp in the rain.

Camping pics are here.

It was a strange experience not having Sprout with us. Sox and I were able to enjoy a dinner out Thursday night, sleep in on Friday, pack the car, and drive to Parksville on our own schedule. I missed him, but it was great to spend some alone time with Sox .

Camping was very fun. I have lots of memories of camping when I was young, and I definitely want Sprout to have something similar.

Sprout seemed to enjoy his time in the campsite too. He played with the golf set, the trike, the scooters, balls, dogs, walking Yoshi, and pretty much any other toy he could get his hands on.

The only issues we had were some minor sleeping issues. Sprout went to bed with ease, but one morning he woke at 2 am and was unhappy until we brought him to bed. We think he was cold. Another morning he woke up early (around 5:30am I think). The last morning he slept until a reasonable time (6:30).

We had some fun on the beach too. Sprout had fun playing in the sand, and I had fun making sand castles for the other kids to destroy. I did get busted for having Yoshi on the beach though. Sox and Sprout were playing on the beach, and I had headed out towards the water with Yoshi. I saw Sox running out towards me so I headed in. A warden had come by, and Sox saved her the trouble of heading out. I forgot that he wasn’t allowed out there. I thought he was allowed there, but on leash only (he was off leash too). Apparently the warden was very nice, and I had no problem removing Yoshi from the beach.

The first day we were there, before I picked up Sprout, Sox and I took Yoshi for a walk on the trails. We came across a large field, and I quickly grabbed Yoshi since I saw a few deer in the field. At first I saw 4, but then more raised their heads until there was 7 visible. Pretty cool.

The big thing we kept an eye on for the weekend was the weather. Thunderstorms and rain were predicted for the weekend, so everyone came prepared with rain gear, tarps, and ropes. Sox and I, along with KaptainK and JJ put up a tarp over our cooking area and that was it. We sat back and enjoyed the show as the rest of the guys spent hours tarping almost every square inch of our campsite. It was quite the show. Tree climbing to get the ropes up high, complicated rope schemes, bungy cords, and the biggest dams tarps I have ever seen.

We also had camp fires every night. Nothing says camping like a good camp fire.

Dogs, kids, good friends, good food, good times. Those are the makings of the best kind of a celebration.

Monday was time to pack up. I did the majority of it while Sox played with Sprout and some of the other kids. I like the challenge of packing. I got everything in its spot, except for one table. I had to pull out half a dozen things to get that in. The scary incident I had was when I was trying to close the Yakima. I was on the roof of the car and managed to get the pod closed with a lot of effort. Then I lost my balance, and almost fell off the roof into a bramble bush. I caught myself with my foot and was able to right myself before falling. Close, but scary. I think I scared a couple other people too.

The last part of this story is the drive home. Sox and I stopped at Starbucks in Nanaimo before hitting the road for home. The first sip I took, I was disgusted. It tasted like coffee mixed with cherries. It was the most disgusting concoction I have ever tasted. I could smell the syrup when I brought the cup to my mouth, and could not stomach another sip. We had already started the drive home, and going back was not an option. We ended up stopping in Duncan, and the shop there fixed the mistake. It was a very disappointing discovery, but I was happy when it got fixed.

The camping trip was great. I can’t wait for next year.