"Camping" We Were

Just this past weekend, Mrs. LIAYF, Lukas, and I went on our now annual "Camping" trip to Cama Beach State Park on Washington's Camano Island.  

As I have explained in previous posts, the quote marks are necessitated by the fact that instead of pitching a tent and roughing it properly, we actually stayed in a small one bedroom cabin...with electricity.  But, before you jump the gun and make a hasty judgement regarding our camping cred, I will point out that we had to pack in everything for the trip, even the bare essentials, there was no bathroom in the cabin, and worst of all.....wait for it.....there was no WiFi! 

Yes, roughing it we were. (Does the Yoda voice convince you? No? Even the slightest bit? I doubted it would.)

Okay, it may not have been roughing it, but it was a pretty fun trip anyway.  It was definitely our type of camping.  Despite the cabin accommodations, we still cooked all our meals outdoors, stayed up late around a bonfire roasting marshmallows, stargazing, and spent time roaming the surrounding trails and beach.  And, for the first time in the 3 years we have been taking this trip we invited friends too.  Our party actually had a total of 7 of the 40 cabins that are available at the site, which added a whole new level of fun and camaraderie to the trip compared to the previous two years.

We did, however, have a bit of a scary moment on the first night as Lukas who was running towards the public bathroom tripped and fell forward just as the metal door was being opened from the inside.  The sharp door hit him smack in the middle of the forehead opening an inch and a half gash into his  hairline.  Luckily, Mrs. LIAYF was right behind him and scooped him into the women's room as he bled profusely all over the place.  It was so bad, I was even called into the Ladies bathroom to help out. 

 By the next morning, the bleeding still hadn't completely stopped, so we drove him an hour to an urgent care center where they glued his wound closed, apparently the equivalent of a few stitches.  Through it all he was very brave, and thanks to the quick reactions of Mrs. LIAYF and the help of other campers, it wasn't much worse and he recovered his spirits very quickly. 

He even seemed to like the reaction he got when he would tell all who inquired what happened, "Well....I just cracked my head open."

The next afternoon he and Mrs. LIAYF even got to go sailing on a large sailboat visiting the neighboring Center For Wooden Boats.  The captain was kind enough to allow him to take the wheel on a couple of occasions.

Above, was my view of his trip.  That's because there wasn't enough room on the boat for one extra person.  Instead I was offered the chance to sail on a much smaller 'Pelican' sailboat of which the crew included the captain, myself and two other tourists who had never sailed before.  This may have been the last time I saw them as the current and wind were strong and our captain was a bit green around the edges. 

3 hours later, we gave up and I had to Google the Center and call on my iPhone to tell them to come give us a tow back.  We were quite a ways down the sound by then and the 4 of us were joking all the time about our 'Rescue', the one pack of crackers we had between us, whether the militarized dolphins would surface on either side of the boat to allow us to grab their dorsal fins and give us a tow, and if there would be a crowd with survival blankets to greet us when we arrived.   All there was was an empty boat house though. 

Everyone else in our party, oblivious to my peril, were back at the cabins grilling up dinner.  I joined them with a story to tell around the camp fire that night.

Despite all the added drama, it was still a peaceful, relaxing, trip which served to melt away the stresses of normal everyday life.

We're already making plans for next year.