By no means is this a picture I took. I found it on the amazing Visit Idaho website.
We went camping this weekend. This is amazing. It might not seem amazing to you, but I swore off camping after Girls camp. Girls camp was fun in its own way, but after awhile, the novelty of sleeping in the "wilderness" lost its appeal. So when the Ortons invited us to go, I wasn't exactly excited, but Derek and I agreed to go. And now, camping isn't that bad! It's actually enjoyable!
We left Friday afternoon and were going to meet the Ortons at whatever campground they chose the night before. It turned out that they didn't make it up to the Cascade/McCall area Thursday evening so we ended up deciding together where to go camping. We ended up choosing McCall because none of the camping areas near Cascade were speaking to us. And we found an AMAZING campground in McCall. Anyone who's going camping in this area should go to this campsite. Payette lake is adjacent to the campground, their bathrooms were clean and had running water (showers and real flushing toilets!), and the park even had entertainment planned! Derek and I are definitely planning on going again!
Friday afternoon we spent at the nearby dock. The water was FREEZING, but it was fun to splash around. Brent and Tanya even brought a little rubber raft to float around in. Derek took everyone on rides. At first, Jane, John and Paul hated the boat, but they all eventually tried it. That evening, Tanya and I got tin foil dinners ready while the guys set up the tents. Brent's brother and his family were coming a little later in the evening and we wanted to get stuff set up for them. The Dave Orton family arrived just before 8 and we all ate dinner, talked, and enjoyed the evening.
Saturday morning we spent at the lake again, this time with both Orton families, and this time at the "beach" area. I write "beach" because it wasn't really that much of a beach. It was only a few yards long and just about 4 feet wide, but it was the perfect size for us. It was almost like our own, private beach!
We drove back Saturday afternoon tired and happy!
10. Bug spray and sunscreen. Oh, sweet relief!
9. Wonderful weather.
8. Brent and Tanya being kind enough to let us sleep in half of their tent.
7. McCall was far enough away from home to be "away." But close enough to home to make it worth the overnighter trip.
6. Splashing, wading, boating and fishing in Payette lake.
5. Payette lake being only a couple minutes walk from our campsite
4. The Ponderosa Park campground had conveniently placed REAL FLUSHING TOILETS and REAL SHOWERS!
3. Delicious food, tin foil dinners; bacon, eggs and pancakes; and yummy sandwiches!
2. Jane slipping and falling into the very, very shallow water (maybe two inches deep) near the shore of Payette Lake and saying "It's a good thing I had my life jacket on!"
1. Spending nice, relaxing, quality time with our great friends the ORTONS!!! Thanks Orton family(-ies) for all the work you went to to make the camping trip a total sucess!
As far as we could see, the only negative to the whole trip was the MOSQUITOES! It was seriously as if all the mosquitoes in the state of Idaho heard we were going camping and went to meet us there. As soon as we got out of the car, they swarmed us! But it wasn't anything that a good dousing of Bug and Sun sunscreen and bug spray couldn't at least keep at bay!
Sounds like fun...we had wanted to camp this year, but I can't imagaine doing it with a baby would be much fun, but maybe next summer. We did buy a great tent last year 50% off for 100 so it is certainly large enough. I LOVE to camp, but need to talk my hubby into it.
ReplyDeleteI am so glad you wrote this post! We had so much fun and it was great to be together! Your description is perfect and I had forgotten that Jane had said that! Pretty cute! You both were great camping partners! We need to do this again very soon! Love the Orton's!
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