Camping

This past weekend we went camping at Garner State Park. It was fabulous! We decided this was probably the most successful camping trip we've had as a couple. ie it was more than one night (I have a hard time going through all the work it takes to camp for just one night), there were no alligators, few bugs, no rain. . . . the weather was great. We 'splurged' and got an electric site. It. was. awesome. We packed a fan (which we only had to use one night and during naps . . . thank you cool breeze), the 'snore-master' and the computer. Outdoor movie? yes please.


Furthermore, Rylee did great. The first night was the hardest as we arrived after dark and she'd fallen asleep in the car. She cried as we unpacked and then was a little worked up and freaked out about the inside of the tent, but warmed up after a while. The next morning she thought it was the coolest thing ever. She liked being able to roam the outdoors, eat dirt, try to chew rocks, eventually liked swimming (it was a little chilly at first touch) and hanging out with Dad for a whole 4 days!

Onto the pictures:

While shopping for a few items I came across this camping chair I couldn't resist. It was used for more of a climbing tool than a chair. Speaking of climbing- she did surprisingly well on the cement pad for the table- didn't even fall off once. Our site backed up to the Frio River. It was still a bit of a walk down to it but was nice to have some water relatively close- even if it was mostly ankle deep.

Who says only boys collect rocks?

The other side of the park was a damn. The water was mostly about waist deep there, but there were a few spots where we couldn't touch.

There were a few hiking trails. Since I forgot the Bjorn it was a little harder to take Rylee, but it was beautiful.

See, Texas isn't all flat.

I loved the giant cypress trees that lined the river. She's not crazy about the life jacket.

Her first pair of flip-flops:
The park had a little mini golf course. We hadn't gotten to the third whole before Michael had to go ask for another ball (somebody was ruining our game). She was funny to watch and made a pretty good caddy.

One night the park hosted an Astronomy club (they actually came from SA). There was probably about 15 or so people there with their equipment. We'd walk around from group to group looking through their telescopes and chatting about space. It was really kind of interesting and I thought really nice of them to come. Apparently their club meets weekly here in SA and it is also free to the public to go check out. I'd love to go check it out sometime.

There was also a pavilion where they have dances most weekends and every night in the summer. I thought that was really unique. It serves as a hang out spot for the locals - I kind of liked watching them 'practice'. Country music and country dancing is awesome. We danced a few songs and then headed back to our site.

When we weren't sleeping, eating, swimming, playing games, dancing, star-gazing, golfing, reading, watching movies, watching wild life or hiking we were lounging in our chairs loving every quiet moment. The park lived up to the hype and I can't wait to go back.

Garner State Park 2011 from tricia allsop on Vimeo.

The only downside was we discovered a hole in our air mattress and came home to find we'd left the garage door open all weekend. Oops. Thankfully we have sweet neighbors who watched out for us.

(this is possibly my longest post ever.)