Camping (TMOART:12)

So while we were on TMOART:12, we ended up camping at two different locations. We spent 3 nights at Prince Gallitzin State Park in Patton, PA and then one night at Gifford Pinchot State Park in Lewisberry, PA. Both of the campgrounds were gorgeous - but we didn't do much other than sleep at both. The Dude took the kids swimming at Pinchot while I started setting up the tent (yes, you read that right) and they had a ball - I, on the other hand, enjoyed the peace and quiet for a little bit and got to visit with a childhood friend who got there while I was tent-wrestling.

Anyway, here are a bunch of pictures from both campgrounds:

The world's most perfect s'more - complete with dark chocolate

Sleepy girls

Preparing for breakfast

Fire! So easy a caveman can do it....

....just to heat up a couple of pop tarts.

Not as remote as it looks. We were right next door to a camper and across the street from the bathrooms.

A constant visitor - we don't have chipmunks in Kansas. Boo.

The stay at Prince Gallitzin was great. We were there for 3 nights. We got there much later than planned the first night, thanks to a missed exit on the good ol' Pennsylvania Turnpike, and we had to set the tent up in the dark. We finally laid down for the night, and were entertained annoyed by a couple of rowdy raccoons that were running amok around our tent and getting into our neighbor's stuff. They were squeaking and squawking and running around like maniacs for hours - we could actually hear them breathing and sniffing around the bottom of our tent at times. Then they disappeared just in time for the massive thunderstorm to roll in - so we were laying there, watching the lightning strike all around us, with horrible wind and a torrential downpour. At that point, I was pretty sure that we were all going to die - and all I could do was lay there on the air mattress and wait for lightning to strike a tree nearby to end our adventure. But, the storm only lasted an hour or two, and then stopped in time for us to sleep for maybe 2 hours before we had to get up again.

Our last night of camping was at Pinchot:

Jared helped The Dude to get firewood.

Pre-tent

Hard to believe that the huge tent fits in that tiny bag...

Someone got a little dirty...

Sunset over the lake

Hanging out in the tent

Sunrise through the tent

There were turtles EVERYWHERE in the morning.

For the first time camping with all of the kids, they really did great. They had a lot of fun and didn't argue and bicker too terribly much. They got bored at times and wanted to go run around, but we didn't have a lot of time so they didn't get to do too much other than hang out with us, but they seemed to enjoy it. They didn't even complain too much about having to sleep on the ground (ok, they had sleeping bags, so they weren't on the ground, but you know what I mean) and they all said that they would like to do it again. We're talking about camping again next year when we do TMOART:13 so we'll see what happens when that time comes!