He said:
I am exhausted and writing this on day 4 about midnight, so forgive the lack of witty in depth prose. I know I've set the bar high for a certain level of wit mixed with a subtle undercurrent of gradually building poignancy. An intrically interwoven tapstery of emotions, such that you literally do laugh until you cry, as the meaning builds in layer upon layer of literary lacquer. But I'm tired. See? I said literary Lacquer. Who does that?
In any case - We left in the afternoon and had an unventful trip to Pocahontas, roughly 40 minutes outside of Jasper. Checked in around supper time, set up the tent. The tent pegs mysteriously disappeared and the reappeared entirely too late to avoid an unpleasant pouting session from someone who shall remain nameless (and embarassed). The kids love everything about it and were way too excited to go to bed. The mosquitos were huge, the fire good (who was that masked firestarter? Oh yeah - me!), and we had our first of what's sure to be many excellent meals from Shannon. Mara had a definite 'look' going on, which we failed to capture on film, with her wide brimmed hat, sunglasses, and mini purse tucked under her arm. We had trouble sleeping. The queen size inflatable mattress kept us comfortably off the ground, but it's a bit like sleeping on a bad waterbed. Particularly if the person next to you is restless. We also learned that our tent is only barely big enough for the four of us. Ryan, the newly added fitfh in our entourage, slept in the tiny closet area. New tent next year, I guess. There was also a thunderstorm in the middle of the night that was a bit distracting.
She said:
Camping was fantastic! I have so many fond memories of camping - I was excited just packing up the supplies. The kids thought the campsite was cool and managed to find enough to keep their interest while we set up camp and the above mentioned "someone" tried to whittle tent pegs out of wood scraps.
If I thought that the tent was fine does that mean my standard are lower? or that I'm wearing rose coloured glasses? or I just don't consider tents to be "disposable" items so next year we'll just find a way to fit?