Camping Day 1

Camping: Day 1

Loaded to the gills with enough camping gear to pitch our tent for a year. Packed with everything you can imagine for just seven days of roughing it. Living outside with nature. Respecting the environment and weather. Appreciating the brightest stars that you'll ever see. Every. Single. Night.

Day I. Here we are headed over the mountains trailing behind our friends in their RV that they have lovingly named 'Rusty'. Our position behind them was intentional. It was Rusty's 1st time over the pass. The families first voyage. And Rusty did well.

Our camping designation was a 1st time see for most of us. We were unaware of the fact that we would be surrounded by such extreme beauty. I had to carefully tuck my 50mm away for the week as landscape shots became my series for the trip. Everywhere we turned, we were faced by magnificent rock structures. Snow peaked mountains. Crystal blue water as far as the eye could see. And cloud formations that took my breath away. (I know, I am quirky like that)

The deer would wander through our site. We witnessed a baby deer barreling down the street at mock speed looking for its Momma. Squirrels devoured five of our avocados one night. 'Rusty' was visited by a mouse. And the fishing was successful. For the little kids at least.

The motto for the week: "Good food....Good company.....Making Memories People, Making Memories". And the motto rang true. Because this was our fifth annual trip with the same group of family and friends. Five years in a row with people who continue to impress and inspire me.

Campfires every night. Boating every day. Chit chatting and deep dish talking. Laughing. Bantering. Bonding. A week void of any kind of technology. No phones or computers for me. And you know what, I loved every minute of that freedom. To take a one week break from texting, phoning, emailing and even daily blip journaling was a nice change for me. I really appreciated each and every minute spent outdoors. It's refreshing. It was liberating. And now that I am back and plugged in again to the technology world, I feel refreshed. I am excited to load my photos. I am excited to send messages to my friends. It's nice to chat on the phone. But I needed to take a step back and I'm glad that I was able to recognize that need.

This will be my longest journal for the week as I am like days and days and day behind. For each day, I will highlight the meal because each family meal was an experience of its own. The way it works with us is that each family is responsible for one meal. So when you divide out all of the meals, you only end up cooking once. Yes, ONCE. And it's a beautiful beautiful thing. Most breakfasts and all lunches are on your own. But that's the easy stuff. You only cook one large dinner....ONCE. Again, a beautiful thing. Cooking for 20 is not as bad as it may seem when you know that you will only...cook...once. Have I repeated myself yet?

Okay, this is camping: Day 1.