2003-06-23 - Camping Fun


I went camping this weekend for the first time this season and I brought along my fun new digital camera to test out the different feature. Someof the pics are a little large but are in my opinion worth it. :) They are underlined and open in a new window.

We had our new tent (front, side) with us. We got to the campsite on Friday at about 430pm, set up the tent, made dinner, and then went to eat it at this very cool place I had discovered that was at the end of this long path that went through a marsh. All of a sudden there was a picnic table right by the water at the end of the path. It was beautiful.

When we got back to the site, my guy stops mid step and says "what is that?". I follow his gaze and see a cute (but large) racoon with what looks like a McDonalds bag in his mouth right behind our tent. But then we realize he is not a connesseur of McDicks, but a fan of our hotdog buns in a bag. From now on we will refer to said racoon as Mrs. Faulker. She had apparently ripped a hole in the side of the tent to get the bag out. And please, no lecturing on you keep no food in your tent, duh. We had only the bags of buns in there. Who knew they'd smell that through double plastic and material. Hmmmppff. Anyways, the guy freaks and starts chasing and swearing at it (it was quite funny as he NEVER swears unless playing hockey.....or chasing racoons) "YOU JUST RUINED A $500 TENT YOU FAULKER". He proceeds to chase it up a tree. What did I do the whole time this was going on? Laugh. Run to get my camera. Laugh. :)

So. Racoon is in the tree. And do you know how long she stayed there (after eating the buns)? I made her stay up there for 3 and a half hours. Every time she'd try to come down, I'd make noise and *zoom* right back up there. I'd toss the occasional tiny rock (there was a sign about hunting, but rocks don't really count, right??) at the tree and shake the surrounding trees. Finally it was too dark to see it anymore and I gave up. That, I must say, was quite rewarding. And fun. My guy didn't think it was funny. Nor did he find it hilarious when he went to the office to find out if he could get some tape to fix the tent temporarily. The owner was a complete ass and said that he'd sell him some duct tape for 50 cents a foot. Such great customer service.

Anyways, aside from that we had a great weekend. I swam in the pool, floated on my air matress in the water near the picnic table and the island among driftwood (1, 2). We also rented a canoe (my personal fave picture of all) and the guy went fishing. I did the ocassional paddling. We saw some water lillies. Finally, we took a picture of us in front of our tent in B&W, and I made a very short (to download) movie of our campfire. Enjoy! It's almost like the real thing. Without marshmallows! Oh yeah, and I got quite the sunburn. *yowie*

Oh yeah. And a big shoutout goes to Jummy for recommending the campground. Though the racoon is all her fault. ;)