Front Yard Camping

After running errands yesterday, David asked if I would pull down the tent from storage.

Not an easy task, if you've seen our garage...

But sure, what the heck. It was a nice day and I hadn't set it up since 2003, so at the very least I needed to refamiliarize myself with the process of erecting it for use. I set it up once, five years ago, but the trip we had purchased it for ended up being a "hotel trip" instead. It took me more than an hour to figure out all the pins and poles, but finally we had a 13x13 structure with three rooms looming over our front yard. I'm confident that the next time I set it up it won't take that long.

Then David started inviting friends over to play, and that turned into our Front Yard Camping Trip!

Janeen from down the street came up with kids Andrew and Rachel to cook hot dogs and make S'Mores. Neighbors stopped by to say hello and help with the fire. Others wished they could make it, and even called from Sequim to get rainchecks. Our kindling consisted of shredded junk mail and old cedar fencing; the fire raged but was watched closely, since the portable fireplace was right on the grass, and we had a loaded water hose nearby just in case. For background we brought out the boom box and put it on All Blues on KPLU and just had fun.

What started as one of David's random requests ended up being a great way to spend our evening at home. It also reignited an interest in Sherry to pursue tent camping in the future, as it was generally easy to get set up in our yard for the outing.

S'More anyone??