Camping With Daughters Part I

Nearly a decade ago I asked if the family would like to go camping in Colorado. I was really surprised by their reaction. They were so excited to go. So, during slow hours at the shop, I hit the internet and started collecting data on campgrounds and wilderness areas to hike. When I got home late that night, I discovered Daya and the older girls had also been doing their homework and were equally excited to show me what they had found, a long list of cabins with swimming pools and jacuzzis near trendy seasonal shopping areas. "But that's not camping!" I complained to a confused family. "Camping involves tents and pork and beans with spam and hot dogs...." Daya interrupted, "Spam!?". "Where do we go to the bathroom?" The girls asked. "There'll be outhouses, I checked", I proudly reassured them. "Outhouses! No way!" complained one daughter. "Where do we take a shower?" another asked. "Look in streams.", I was excited to show them in full color, as I pulled up a site on the PC. "Is there electricity for hair dryers?" one asked and the other two looked on hopefully.

In the end a compromise was reached. We camped in tents half the time, near small tourist towns that had a waffle house where the girls could use a flushing toilet before we headed out by car to a suitable hiking area. Suitable usually meant well-marked, nearly paved, stair-like trails. But it was fun just the same. We saw a lot of mountains, the great Sand Dune National park, dug for fossils, visited caves and ghost towns in between 5 star restaurants and fast food joints with flushing toilets. And those precious nature-filled moments at the break of Dawn when my 9 years old niece, pawned off on us by my stay-vacation seeking sister, would ask if I had a gun to kill the stupid birds that were waking her up. Oh the memories.

I particularly enjoyed the dramatic, "you work me like a slave" two-hour routine that ensued when unpacking the car at each new campground. And on day 6 of our 9 day vacation, worn down by their downtrodden expressions, when I announced should pack and head for home, how they shifted into another much faster time-space dimension dashing about me in frantic blurs and packed the car in 15 minutes. They immediately returned to my dimension and smiled at me through the car windows encouraging me to come along and drive. Oh the memories.

S'more Kit with Double Dark Chocolate Gourmet Marshmallows, Handmade Graham Crackers, and Valrhona Chocolate