assateague

Cold breakfast s'mores because it was too windy/rainy for a fire the night before—and behold, the crumpled canopy that met its demise in the storm

Um... every picture of Eliza's family was a variation on this theme. Foot in mouth?

SWEETEST OUTFIT (in hindsight, what a great idea to bring my rain boots!)

I knew that I should have posted about our weekend camping trip at Assateague as soon as we got back, because now the details are becoming foggy. Well, the whole thing is becoming more and more funny to me, which I guess is a good thing, since I was feeling kind of pessimistic about it late Friday night.

This is what sticks out to me: we showed up to the beach, it was GORGEOUS. We set up our tent, hung out for a few hours, it got a little rainy. Waited a little longer, the torrential rain and lightning and thunder and tornado warnings in the county showed up. And then didn't go away till... I don't know, really late, like 2 or 3 in the morning. By that point I stopped keeping track because I was delirious from exhaustion and tried to fall asleep with a pillow over my whole head so that I could attempt to block out the lightning and the noise of the rain pounding on the tent. Our tent protected us from the elements (we tested it in Iceland during a crazy storm on the beach), but poor Eliza had some leaking problems in her tent. And Matt was not there because he was gone on a work trip. And the lightning was scary. (Seriously, it felt like it was IN OUR TENT—but I had a husband to cling to and she didn't, and I felt bad about that. Though I did offer to go to her tent to let her cling to me and that didn't ever happen. I'm great to spoon with, Eliza! Okay, stopping now.) So I really don't blame her for wanting to leave in the middle of the night and sleep in the car (didn't happen—I don't think you guys understand how bad the rain and lightning really were), or for wanting to leave first thing in the morning after enjoying a cold s'more. But Eliza has raised some really amazing kids who didn't wake up at all during the night, even when they were sleeping in puddles in the tent, and claimed when they woke up the next day that they had a really great time.

So. That's that.

I'm really selling this whole camping thing to you guys, aren't I? Haha. I have such wonderful memories of camping from when I was a kid! And now that we know how to do it right (i.e., good sleeping pads, sleeping bags, etc.) it's a lot more fun, and we live by so many cool places that we just want to take advantage of it more than we have in the past. And Assateague is seriously gorgeous. It's a pretty amazing place with lots of beautiful wildlife (horses, deer, turtles, rabbits, birds, the works!) and the beaches are clean and virtually empty. As you can see in the last few pictures, Robbie and I stayed for a little while afterward and soaked up the sun, which made the trip worth it. (Also—all of those pictures were taken Saturday morning between 6 am and 11 am. What weird weather.)

Maybe you can come with us next time. But I promise we'll just get a hotel if there's a chance of rain.