Family's First Tent Camping Trip!

We have one of those freaking huge family tents that's been sitting around in a closet for at least the past three years. It was a 10-year gift from Nintendo, my wife's previous employer. Our youngest son is almost five, so we decided it was finally time to use the aforementioned tent.

The scene: Lake Easton State Park. This park is a mere hour's drive from The Shire, which is always nice. The kids didn't even get the chance to ask "are we there yet" or request a restroom break. We arrive, check in, and head to our site. The clan goes to locate the nearest bathroom and water spigot, and I busy myself setting up the tent. It's a nice one, and my only real complaint is that it lacks privacy flaps on the front doors. You know, the upper half of the doors are mosquito nets, and in most tents, there are zip-up flaps on the inside of the doors for privacy. But the rain fly works just as well if you let the front down, so no big deal.

One of the first things I noticed about our site was the amount of litter on the ground. And by litter, I'm talking about small stuff - bottle caps, pieces of wrappers, things of that nature. I guess it's the Boy Scout in me, but I was taught two things: 1) Don't Litter! and 2) Always leave your campsite cleaner than you found it. And it wasn't just the stuff in our site - there was some on the nature trails, by the lake, in and around the restrooms. What is wrong with people? I must be getting old and grumpy now that I'm in my early 40s. But honestly, what is so fucking hard about using a trash can, or sticking your garbage in your pocket until you get back to camp?

Overall, we had a great time. The kids and the family hound had a blast, got dirty as all getup, dropped some hot dogs in the ashes of the fire, ate s'mores, and manged to not freak out at night in the tent. We were there just under 24 hours, which goes by too fast, but it was just right for the first time. Next time we'll go two nights, and see how that goes. And yes, the last thing we did before we got in the car and left was to make a thorough sweep of the camp site. It's easier to explain the "always leave your campsite cleaner than you found it" concept as "you need to pick up litter, even if it's not yours, because the animals who live here can't do it themselves."

It felt good to go tent camping, and it's been waaaaay too long (our last trip was about 13 years ago, pre-kids, holy schnikes!) so we were overdue. I hope to one day take everyone on a true back country hiking/camping trip.