Camping

We camped in our new (used) pop-up for the first time. There was, of course, a small learning curve involved. Friday, I took off early to help pack things up. Well, actually, I was mostly concerned with trying to figure out how to sanitize the water tank. I never did figure it out before we had to leave, which left Sweetie to do most of the packing.

I started throwing stuff in the back of the truck with grand thoughts of bringing my guitar and the telescope and other things, but the back of the truck filled up quickly with our camp chairs, cooking gear, sleeping bags and food.

Finally, time came to leave. Sweetie and I tried to get the trailer on the hitch while Hobbes filmed us with the video camera. Not entirely flattering, us bickering with each other while trying to figure out how to get the hitch to engage. Finally, we decided to just pull out and see if that did it. It did. The tires on the trailer were kinda flat, but at that point we really needed to get going, so off we went.

Our campsite

We got all the way to the water treatment plant (about 3/4 of a mile) when I realized that I hadn't brought the instructions for erecting the pop-up with us. We stopped and I got out to walk back to town (I didn't want to turn the trailer around) to get them. Calvin decided to join me to get his pillow. Fortunately, a neighbor drove by and offered to give us a lift to our house and back to the truck, saving us precious time. On the road again, we made slow time. It was a new experience driving with a trailer across the bumpy dirt road. I never mind treating the truck to some bumps, but didn't want to stress a 25-year-old trailer too much, so we drove slowly. We finally got to Little Harbor and found campsite 17. It's at the top of the campsite, perched between Little and Shark Harbors. It was nice that we were up away from other campers and no-one was in 17a across the way. Very quiet. Except for the Things.

Popping up the camper went relatively smoothly (since we had the directions). I discovered two things: the battery was dead (not surprising) and the drain for the water reservoir is under the seat in the dining area. Good to know. We started a fire and did a weenie roast for dinner, followed by s'mores for dessert. Sweetie and Hobbes read Deathly Hallows in the trailer, while Calvin and I read Harold and the Purple Crayon in the truck. Then it was bed time. Sweetie and I didn't stay up much past the boys' bed time. We knew they would be up early.

S'mores!

I will note at this point that the weather really wasn't cooperating. It was overcast and wet and chilly (that means 60s during the day and the 50s at night). Not very good for a campout at the beach, but it did make us appreciate our trailer that much more. The previous owners had left us some extra blankets, which Calvin needed before the night was through (since he only had a kid sleeping bag).

On the trail

Sure enough, as soon as it was light (6:30am) the boys stirred and woke us up. We cooked scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast on the stove in the trailer. Calvin insisted we eat at the table in the trailer. It was a cold (~60) and gray morning. The boys helped clean up, and then we went on a hike. I'll let Sweetie describe it on her blog (A Hiking Diary of Catalina). I will say it was a nice, although exhausting, hike. We returned entirely ready for lunch. Sweetie cooked up some grilled cheese sandwiches and we had a few minutes of quiet time (not enough in my opinion). Since we were camping at the beach, we decided we might as well go down to the water, even though it was, as I said rather cold and gray. The boys dutifully put on their bathing suits and we wandered down to Shark Harbor. We saw a neighbor down there setting up camp and chatted a bit while the boys discovered how cold the water was (pretty damn cold). The boys decided climbing around on the rocks was more fun than freezing to death in the water. After not too long, we all decided it was time to make dinner, and headed back to camp.

Cold gray day; cold gray water; surfers have no more sense than boys.

For dinner, we had a chuckwagon combo of beans and ground turkey. It was pretty good, considering we (Sweetie) just sort of made it up on the spot. This evening, I had Hobbes build and light the fire (12 matches!), and Calvin apprenticed in the art of putting a stick in the fire and lighting it on fire and then waving it around in the air. After more s'mores and Harry Potter, it was time for bed. We were all exhausted.

Sunday morning again came early. The boys are like clockwork with their waking up. It was again rather gray and damp and cold outside, so we had pancakes in the trailer for breakfast. Afterwards, it was time to strike camp. The Things did a reasonable job packing up their clothes and sleeping bags. Hobbes helped Sweetie do breakfast dishes while Calvin helped me pack up the truck. We took down the trailer with ease (and found Calvin's hat on top). Hobbes was very helpful with this.

Breakfast KP

As we were getting ready to pull out, we decided that the one tire was too flat, so since we had a spare, we decided to change it. The truck jack worked very well for this, and soon we were on our way with a marginally less flat tire.

Surprisingly, no one fell asleep in the truck on the way home, but once we got there and unpacked, it was clear that we had some tired boys, so we had a movie afternoon. We had such a good time, that we've already booked three more weekends this summer. Next time out, we'll have a charged battery, inflated tires, and better weather.