We loaded up the van Friday afternoon with plastic tubs full of food, camping gear, the tent, sleeping bags and the coolers, and drove an hour and a half up into the North Carolina mountains to go camping. My in-laws got us a site with water and electricity up at Racoon Holler, just of the Blue Ridge Parkway near Glendale Springs. The tent took a little bit to set up (those instructions are sometimes confusing) but then I hooked up the electric pump and had the mattresses inflated in no time.
Each night we did dinner with the family (my wife's parents, her brother and his family) but afterwards we'd retire back to our own campsite for our evening fire. It was nice sitting out and just enjoying the smell of nature by the glow of some burning wood in the fire-ring.
We cooked out our own breakfasts (my son using his scouting skills for doing bacon and eggs) and brought sandwich fixings for lunch. One night he even did the dinner for everyone - a stew with beef, potatoes, onion, carrots and tomato. It went well with the sour dough bread my wife and I picked up at the nearby Trading Post after our hike to one of the waterfalls on Saturday afternoon.
Sunday we did a family hike (all eleven of us) - two hours and about five miles. The campgrounds also had some fun family activities for the weekend - kids crafts on Saturday morning, a fishing tournament on Sunday afternoon, and bingo on Sunday night.
Not even a bit of rain on Friday night/Saturday morning could ruin the good mood of the weekend. The tent kept the rain pretty much out (we had one or two seam leaks but nothing major) while we got to enjoy hearing the pitter-patter of it on the roof.
I'm looking forward to our next outing.
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