This weekend, a group of six of us went on a camping excursion in Boulder Lake for Man Friend's best friend's birthday. With only a few minor disasters, it was about a 90% success...which is pretty high if you ask me.
The weekend started off a tad on the rocky side. There hadn't been very good communication or organization of the trip until about a day beforehand, which drove my very anal retentive self crazy. I need to know exactly how everything is going and have a borderline unhealthy need to plan things down to the detail. The campground and site weren't even chosen until Friday morning, less than ten hours before Man Friend and I were supposed to leave town.
Well, the site was determined and I started to feel a little more at ease. Not so fast. Nothing ever goes that smoothly. It started pouring and even hailing in some areas. After checking the weather, I found out the area where we were camping was expecting intermittent showers throughout the weekend. Assured Monica very quickly grew into Grouchy Monica. I did not want to spend the weekend cold and miserable and went into the trip expecting the worst...and in a very sour mood.
Alas, the rain ended (for a while) and by the time we reached the campground, skies were mostly clear.
Saturday did have some scattered showers, but luckily for us, it was mostly just sprinkles. The worst part about the weather, though, was that all the wood/logs/sticks were soaked and nearly impossible to start a fire with. Man Friend and his BFF ended up going into town mid afternoon to get more wood. Anyway, the camp ground was really nice and I definitely wouldn't mind going again. Clean, big, no one too rowdy and the grounds had a beach as well. We swam for a while in the afternoon, even though I initially would have rathered sit on the beach reading. I'm not one for water, and by that I mean, I hate swimming, and am scared of it. It took quite a bit of coaxing from Man Friend for me to even get in waist deep. After a while I did manage to have a decent amount of fun with everyone else.
Back at the camp site, we made a little friend with a friendly chipmunk. At first we decided to call him Alvin, you know, from Alvin and the Chipmunks. Man Friend started throwing Reeses Pieces towards him and we very quickly discovered that apparently chippies love them. The little guy was stuffing every one in his mouth, occasionally scampering away to hide it somewhere unknown to us stupid humans. It didn't take long for a game to develop to see how much and/or what he would shove in his mouth. The answer is pretty much anything, which turned into the new name of Theodore, you know, like Alvin's fat brother. Theodore's biggest accomplishment was fitting an entire Carmello square in his mouth and running off with it. He was also particularly fond of green grapes and my pesto noodle salad.
Approximately 5:00 Sunday morning, it started storming. And hard. Rain was pouring down and thunder and lightning started. Storms are loud enough normally, but when only a tent is between you and a storm, it seems about a zillion times louder. I'm typically not scared of storms at all, but the whole being outdoors with next to nothing for shelter changes that. I was pretty scared we could get hurt by the lightning...not to mention paranoid water would get in the tent, leaving me cold, wet and miserable. This was everything I didn't want out of the trip. It took quite a while, but eventually the storm subsided, I was able to chill out and fell back asleep.
Despite the few glitches, it was a really relaxing weekend. It was so nice and, and frankly, much needed, to be away from home for a few days and leave the stress of reality behind. And really, is anything better than having a few cold beers around a fire?
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