Camping, Day 3

Sunday, our final full camping day, was the best of the weekend. We all had a blast and everyone was in a great mood. We began the day with a walk around the lake.

Then that afternoon we went to the beach area of the lake, called Sandy Cove, and spent time playing in the water, sand and in Maggie's case, with new friends. She really enjoyed the rides the bigger kids gave her in their boat, digging in the sand with her sand toys, and swimming in the lake with Chad.

Sunday evening we had our last campfire of the trip and Chad had the lighting
of, maintaining, and extinguishing down to a science. Anyone who knows him knows how much he loves building fires, so it was a fun event to watch.

Camping, Day 2

On Saturday, our second day of camping, we had a couple things planned that we wanted to do. The first was to make the trip to Buck Rock. After breakfast we loaded up and drove the 45 minute trip to the fire lookout station. About ten years ago I spent the night there with my parents who volunteered to watch for fires for a night. Chad had never been and wanted to check it out and see the view.

That afternoon we wanted to rent a canoe to tote Maggie around Hume Lake. So we did. And it was an experience. She liked it for the first 10 minutes. The next 70 minutes she didn't want to be there. She wanted to get out and run around and not be in the boat. She slept in my lap for the last 10 while Chad rowed us to shore. It wasn't a peaceful, relaxing boat trip by any means and unfortunately set the tone for the rest of the evening. Grumpy, whiny, Maggie took my patience and by 8pm it was time for her to go to bed. I would have put her down earlier if I could have. The good news is she fell asleep immediately and we didn't have to fight to put her down. The other good news is that Chad and I ended up with a quiet evening outside by the campfire with no crabby toddler to bother us.

Camping, Day 1

Our first day of camping began with a hike on the Big Stump trail. It was the same hike Maggie and I took a year ago (click here). Maggie's grown a lot since then and is much more solid on her feet. She still enjoys riding in the backpack, though. Who wouldn't?

After the hike we drove to our camp to unload. Maggie and Chad took a nap after the tent was up and I enjoyed sitting outside, relaxing and reading a magazine! Later in the day, after dinner, the air turned humid we noticed a few sprinkles on our bear box. Huh? It can't rain while we're camping! Good thing we have a good tent and a solid rain-fly. Fortunately the sprinkles only lasted about a minute or two and were super light, so nothing ever got wet. We did, however, get to see something at sunset that Maggie was excited about: a rainbow.















We ended up having about 3 minutes of rain overnight and it was so loud in the tent. I liked it and especially liked that there wasn't any thunder or lightning to accompany it.

Hume Lake

Last Friday Chad, Maggie and I went to Hume Lake for a long weekend. It was busy and fun and we managed to fit quite a bit into the trip. I will put more photos from our vacation up in the next few days. Click here to compare our family photo this year to the one we shot last year.

Happy Campers

In Front of Our Tent

This past weekend we spent our days at Hume Lake with friends. It was Maggie's first time sleeping in a tent and our first time as a family camping in the beautiful mountains. Now that we know what a great camper she is, it definitely will not be our last.  Even though we stayed for two nights the time went by so quickly that we weren't able to experience everything we wanted to. We aren't complaining though because it gives us lots to look forward to for next summer.We had such a great time.

Our Families During the Nearly 3-Mile Walk Around the Lake

Before Heading Home

Maggie Eating Breakfast in Her Jammies

Camping Again

Last Friday we went with Chad's family to Hume Lake for the weekend. There were eight of us and we all had a great time. We managed to fit a lot into the quick trip and really could have used an extra day to do some more. We walked around the entire lake, ate good food, hit the Celebrate Sequoias Festival, swam at Sandy Cove, made marshmallow guns, shared bear stories, cooked in a dutch oven, paddled around the lake in canoes and visited Boyden Cavern, a marble cave deep in the Sierra.

Camping

Here's where we spent our weekend. Friday afternoon we drove to Hume Lake in the Sequoia National Forest to a campsite we reserved near the lake. Immediately after we arrived we unloaded the car and set up the tent so we could explore for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Before dark we managed to walk around the entire lake and then make dinner at our camp. Saturday we fished for a good part of the day, sat at the lake and enjoyed the views, ate lunch at the snack bar, walked around the campgrounds and listened to a talk from a naturalist about birds. Sunday morning we fished some more before packing up our camp and heading off. On the way home we stopped by Grant's Grove to see the General Grant tree, the third largest tree in the world.