"Camping"

Things have been a bit quiet here at LIAYF this past week. That's because Mrs. LIAYF, Lukas and I have been on our first family "camping" trip.

I used the quote marks because we didn't actually pitch a tent and sleep on the ground, but rather stayed in our own small fishing cabin. With mattresses.

I know to some of you die hard campers that may not count as real camping, but to us it certainly did as we cooked our food outdoors, roasted marshmallows & made Smores around the camp fire, didn't shower in four days, and most significant of all were without an Internet connection the whole time.

Plus, we told Lukas we were camping so that is our story and we're sticking to it.

The camp site was at Cama Beach State Park on Camano Island here in Washington State, and as the name suggests they were located just off the beach overlooking beautiful Elger Bay on Puget Sound. As a bonus, there was also a Center for Wooden Boats annex at the camp site, so campers could rent out motor, sail, or row boats to explore the surrounding bay.

We also took the opportunity to plan a couple of hikes suitable for an energetic 3 year old. Lukas' first official hike (accomplished all on his own) was an approximately 3 mile round trip to Cranberry Lake, which was really just a large bog with an abundance of vegetation growing out of it.

I'm pretty sure we would have completed the hike in half the time, had we not had to stop at every Salmon berry bush along the way to nourish ourselves.

In all, the place couldn't have been more family friendly as the 40 small cabins were mostly occupied by families with younger children. Thus it didn't take long for Lukas to find several other kids his age to tell what to do make friends with. Plus, it was far enough removed from the bright lights of the city that we also had an amazing view of the Perseid Meteor Shower on Wednesday night.

Oh yeah, I made a lot of wishes that night. Don't worry, I'll not forget all the little people once they start coming true.

In fact, we had such a great time that we decided to stay an extra night and will be planning early for a return trip next Summer with a larger group of friends.

It will most likely be the next time I am offline for 4 straight days.