Hammock camping

Sadly, I forgot the camera, but there may be photos later on anyway.

There were definite pros and cons to the trip but I think it was wildly successful, if somewhat exhausting.

Cons first.

We were in a campground with a lots of other folks and approximately a bazillion kids. I don't mind kids, we had one along with us. Lillian and Ryan and I had one campsite, and her brother, Curtis, his wife, Laura, their baby, Lilah, and Laura's sister, Karen, had the other campsite, right next to ours but separated by trees, as were all of the sites. (Which was a "pro", but there ya go.)

However, the other kids were Way Loud, even after the 10:00 Quiet Time curfew. There was much singing and frivolity, and I'm not opposed to either, but not at 11:00 at night.

Nor was I a huge fan of the loud conversation and frivolity from the campsite across the road from us, although they did have two lovely dogs, so that was nice. Still, loud and drunken conversation isn't my favorite thing late at night either, unless it's covered up by some seriously good SCA-type drumming, which this wasn't.

I was told that the shower on the men's side of our restroom complex only spat out lukewarm water and not even for the whole allotted 3 minutes that a token bought you, which had to be sucky. However, I am told that the women's side worked well. I didn't want to take a chance, so I was first in the shower when we got home.

There were firepits, but you're not allowed to lug in your own, ostensibly to avoid transporting pests, which is probably quite true, but which also gives the park license to be complete rip-offs about firewood. $5 for three short logs and some kindling is absurd.

There weren't enough off-road trails for Ryan to bike on, so that was a bit disappointing for him.

However, the Pros far outweighed the Cons!

Not only did Lillian and I enjoy sleeping in our hammocks (although I twisted my sleeping pad the second night and it took some investigating to figure out what went wrong and put things right), but Ryan enjoyed his, and our spare hammock ended up at the Other Campsite (Curtis, et al) where Karen napped in it and Curtis slept in it at night. Huge success!

It was finally summer here for this weekend, and it was a bit warm with no drizzle of any kind, blue skies and cool nights were the order of the day. It drizzled when we left, but that's cool. If anything, I wanted a slight breeze at night because it was so warm, but that's a great problem to have for us. I know that's not true in the rest of the country.

We got to wander around Silverdale and meet up with a lady whom I know as a customer from the shop. She's a local deputy sheriff, and she makes a kick-ass banana nut bread, in addition to being a fabulous and fun person to talk to. Hi, Kathy! She also clued us in where to buy firewood that was acceptable to the park and was substantially more cost effective. It's great when you've got an "in" where you're playing.

There was a beach, but everyone and their kid and dog was down there, so I mostly stayed in camp and read the ARC of the upcoming new John Connolly novel, and if you don't think that was a serious "Pro" to me, you obviously haven't been paying attention! I want to go hang out by the water sometime, but not when it's me and every other person on the peninsula.

There's a little general store nearby and while their product mark-up is as steep as you think it'll be, the people there are super nice, and there's a cafe where we had breakfast on our way out of town, and the food was reasonably priced and quite nummy.

Speaking of food, we were tickled. Curtis brought a gas stove for their side to cook on and we brought our little hibachi with hardwood charcoal. But it turned out that there was something wrong with the propane stove, so we all ended up cooking on our little hibachi, and it was more than up to the task! The only things we didn't cook on it were the s'mores, the popcorn and the biscuit/apple pies.

It's been a long time since we've been camping, and Lillian and I discovered that we really missed it. The joy of hammock camping up here in the Pacific Northwest is that there are always trees, so we have lots of options ahead of us. It was lovely to get out of town and hang out in a place where cell phone reception is spotty at best, where I could sit still enough to have a tiny bird come out and sit in the sun with me, where the squirrels chased each other around our campsite, and where the only reason we couldn't see a field of stars was because the trees were so tall and thick that they blocked out the stars.

We'll be going back, both to this campsite -- and maybe even a day trip out to have lunch at the little diner again, it's not that far away -- and to others in the area. Although we will try to find a place farther away from the playground next time!

Comments

[Kathy]

Fran, good description of that wonderful state park. I loved our talk and meeting Lillian in person after having "met" her here and on FB. And I love friends who will let me cook/bake for them.