Camping Trip 2010

As it is somewhat of an annual tradition with my family, this past week Jackie and I headed up to Pentwater, Michigan for my family's camping excursion. Neither or us are particularly "fond" of camping (specifically, sleeping in a tent, at times, questionable washroom facilities), but its an excellent opportunity to spend with family; which for us, as we live a couple hours away, is always nice. The campground we stay at has good facilities, and by going during the week it cuts down on the people traffic, making those facilities nicer. However, there is no such control over what Mother Nature decides to brew up, as we would find out. This year was a bit different, as my sister and brother-in-law were unable to make it due to my sister being on bedrest (due in July, been a long road for her, but soon a little baby girl will be joining the family). But we were joined by not only my parents but our 2 year old nephew, Gavin.

There are kind of three things/themes I take away from the week. First, is how nice it was to spend the extra time with Gavin. We had the whole week, and discovered how much energy the little guy has. We went for many walks with him, some when he was walking and some when he was riding his little bike. We also had fun swimming with him on the final day at the campground. It was nice to get to know the little guy better, from blowing bubbles to reading Curious George (which was more of playing "Where's Waldo/George", but still lots of fun).

Second, is how, after a year of saying it can't happen two years in a row (referring to being washed out of our tent by the rain, see this post), it happened again. The second night of the trip, it started raining at around 7 and then continued all night until about 3 or so in the morning. And raining hard. When it started, we looked at our tent and could see the water already leaking in; so, in an improvement from last year, I was able to rearrange all the stuff packed in our Sportage so that we could put the seats down and least have a place to lay down. So we accomplished that and caught a few winks before morning. The tent again had standing water, but unlike the previous year, we did not have particularly sunny weather, making drying out the tent more difficult. We managed in the tent for the next night, although we did have to deal with the zipper breaking and attempting to fix it by flashlight in the middle of the night so we could ge

t out. The final night of the trip a small storm rolled through and brought some more rain. The tent once again started leaking, and brought us to the end of our rope for that particular tent. It now resides (or did) in the campground dumpster. It will be a new tent for next year. And for next year, we will be saying that it can't possibly happen three years in a row.

In any event, on the final day of the trip, we had the gorgeous weather a vacation deserves, and packed a ton into that day. We ate at our favorite Pentwater spot, The Village Cafe; we walked along the pier on Lake Michigan with Ellie; did much swimming at the campground; and then headed up to a small beach that allows dogs right on Lake Michigan to watch the sunset. Its these memories that must be remembered as opposed to the rain, or at least remembered with it to always remind us of how wonderful the annual trip to Pentwater can be.

So, despite the second straight year of a rain disaster and the trashing of our tent, the time with family, and some of the rituals we have associated with the trip make it a worthwhile trip.