Happy Campers

Last Thursday we left Madison and headed East, to Delaware, OH for a nice relaxing mini-vacation with our close friends The Prochazkas. Our trip was roughly 11.5 hours, which is pretty good considering we hit some serious traffic outside of Columbus, OH. About 5 hours into our trip Tim remembered that our tent poles were sitting on our deck...and not packed with the actual tent in the cargo box. I, of course, that this was hilarious and SO something that I would do (but it wasn't actually me who forgot something "big" this time). No big deal, we decided to take a detour and swing into a Gander Mountain to buy a new tent (we needed a bigger one anyway). It's just not a vacation until someone forgets something.

We rolled into our campsite around 5pm on Thursday evening, set up camp and grilled up some spiedies before nightfall (but we still managed to eat our dinner in the dark...like we do every camping trip). The first two days of our trip were UNGODLY hot (with temperatures near 100°and about 90% humidity...kill me now). The third day brought some serious thunderstorms in the evening. Our tent was actually lit up all night from the lightning, it was pretty darn awesome. Of course, Josie slept through the the storms (Tim and I? Not so much). Our last day there, after The Prochazkas headed back to NY, was absolutely perfect camping weather; roughly 65°, overcast and breezy.

While were were in the great state of Ohio, we managed to check out some local attractions; including some Indian Caverns and the Columbus Zoo. The caverns were a great reprieve from the oppressive heat, but not nearly as impressive as Howe Caverns (but then again, what is?). The zoo was UNBELIEVABLE! I'm pretty sure it's one of the top zoos in the nation. It was ginormous! We were there for 6 hours, and still didn't see everything. Fun fact: Jack Hanna was the director at the zoo for a number of years, and made it the great attraction it is today. Go Jack! It felt more like a super clean amusement park then a zoo. There was also a HUGE water park attached to the zoo (but of course the day we went it was rainy, which is fine by me since Im not a fan of water parks anyway). We had no idea that these attractions were within 20 miles of our campground when we made our reservations. It was quite a pleasant surprise.

Josie was a great little traveler and slept for the majority of the trip (both ways). It wasn't until we were about 15 minutes outside of Madison that she started FREAKING out.

Hopefully, we'll be able to take a short weekend camping trip in October (when the air is cool and crisp). Before that happens, we'll have to return the *new* tent we bought since it didn't stay all that dry during the rainy days (Oh look! A pool of water where my bag is! Awesome!). I guess it's not as "hurricane proof" as we thought. Luckily, things like that don't bother us; it's all part of the experience!

There is about 2 tons of laundry calling my name...so I should probably go tend to that.

Here are a few shots from the trip:

Happy Camper

Sleeping next to Daddy in the tent

playing Peek-a-boo in the car (reflection in the backseat mirror)

Outdoor bath time! Little hippie!

scowling at me as she attempts to open our water jug

standing up like a Big Girl (Gah! Stop growing!)

our campsite

Bear Butts! Taken at the Columbus Zoo

**By the way, the meals I prepared and froze ahead of time worked out wonderfully! I will definitely be doing that again for our next camping trip**