elfs | Camping, Day 2

360 view of the campsite.

Omaha and Yamaraashi-chan were up in the morning long before I was, making me wonder what happened to my usual up-and-at-'em while camping. I was a grump this time. Omaha was having the worst allergy attack, and it would stay bad throughout the rest of the day. This was our first camping trip early in the summer and maybe that was the problem, because everyone was a little sniffly.

I made coffee while the girls read their books. Breakfast, after everyone was awake, consisted of Omaha's breakfast muffins, only slightly burned in the camp oven, but not tragically.

Ancient Table

The campsite was comfortably situated right next to the river, and we had a table of middling age. Some of the tables were brand new, and had proper iron fire rings; ours was older, with a crack in one end, and the fire ring had a welded grate. The oldest tables were decrepit and had only a stone fire ring. This table must have been ancient, and I'm not even sure when the last time the grill was even used.

It was while dressing to go hiking that Omaha discovered the one major mistake we'd made: we hadn't checked the girls' clothing inventory closely. The list we'd given them had instructed them to have enough pants, shirts, underwear, and socks for seven days in the woods. We discovered, to our horror, that they'd each brought six pairs of shorts and six pairs of long pants. Worse, Kouryou-chan had brought exactly one pair of underwear.

"She gets to learn how to wash her clothes in the river," Omaha said. "With Dr. Bronners."

Duckabush River from Jefferson Trail Cove

We walked the Jefferson Trail, a small trail near the campsite (and near the well with the iron-heavy water) that led to a nifty little cove where we stopped for lunch. While we were there, we saw

Frog!

this nifty frog sunning himself and eating bugs. He lunged to catch one as I watched, so I turned my camera to movie mode to see if he'd do it again, but he never in the ten minutes I watched. I deleted the film to make room for more photos.

Nobody liked my choice Gorp, although Kouryou-chan greedily picked out the chocolate chips.

After that, we walked back and then drove into town for some supplies we'd forgotten, like paper towels. This was an interminable exercise in boredom while we waited for various road construction crews to asphalt the roads. We passed by steamrollers that sounded like something out of Quake.

Evil Chicken Overlord!

We got back to camp and Omaha used her amazing fire skills so we could make dinner. Tonight's choice was beercan chicken, and I for one am ready to reach out and shake the wing of our evil chicken overlords! It took fully two hours to cook, but it was so moist and delicious when we were done that no one complained. We played charades while we waited. I made couscous and steamed broccoli for sides.

Omaha's allergies made her miserable and kept her up most of the night. Everyone else seemed to have slept well, though. I didn't recall waking up once.