--we had a blast on our camping excursion this past weekend. (first of all, i let the kids have a dress-rehersal the weekend before in the living room...they thought it was fun sleeping in the tent.) we went to kiptopeke state park in cape charles, va, friday evening after work...after the camp store was closed. it said on the website not to bring your own firewood, and since the store was closed, while i set up the tent, i set the kids to work scrounging for wood. good thing i had packed cold fried chicken for dinner that night, because our meager supply of firewood only managed to cook marshmallows...so considering that's all we needed to cook, it all worked out.
--after we made camp, we went for a walk to get our bearings, find the facilities, and see the sunset over the bay. got some great shots of the kids down by the water. after our walk we came back for dinner and dessert. s'mores received two thumbs up...but that wasn't a surprise.
--getting them to bed wasn't too hard, but not that easy either. we read stories and they crawled into their sleeping bags. however, sierra kept peeking out of the tent to see where i was, and chatting with aidan, so the whole go to bed with the sun thing didn't quite work out according to plan...though i knew they'd be up with the sun.
--the next morning we prepped for hiking. there were several trails to choose from, but in order to have the highest chance for children's enjoyment, i chose the one that included a butterfly garden and the bird-banding station. migratory birds fly over kiptopeke every year, and the volunteers have set up a banding station to tag and keep track of several species. it was really interesting to see.
--at the butterfly garden, we met a conservationist tagging monarch butterflies. she caught them in a net, put stickers on the underside of their wings and then released them. kids got to “help” her release them.
--when we moved on to the banding station, they had just brought in several birds. all over the park they have tiered nets set up that capture the birds, and every hour they go check the nets. after they band, weigh, measure, and chart each bird, they're released. kids got to touch many different kinds of birds, and even release a few themselves. they thought it was pretty awesome...which it was. (sorry for the retarded sideways videos...i really have to remember that i can't turn the camera that way for video....oops.)
--while we were at the banding station, there was a call on the radio that they'd captured two hawks and were taking them to the hawk observatory to let everybody see before they released them. so we made our way that way. we got to see a male and female cooper hawk and hear all about them. the male was a bit unhappy to be there, but wasn't too stressed, however was at times somewhat loud. the female was much larger than the male, and they said she could pick up a bird the size of a pigeon in her talons...while still in flight...as in the pigeon's flying and the hawk grabs it. pretty impressive. we actually "adopted" her. with a donation, as each bird is banded, they'll notify you if and when the bird is ever found again anywhere in the world...pretty cool.
--after lunch, and after i untangled the fishing line the kids managed to turn into knots, we tried our hand at fishing. sierra's attempt lasted an entire 20seconds before she tossed her pole on the ground (into the water) and she was in the water herself. aidan lasted longer, but eventually gave up. i didn't expect us to catch anything, but we had fun trying anyhow...then they had more fun playing and getting completely covered in sand and water. needless to say, shower time in the bath house was our next adventure.
--they played for a while until we ate, made s'mores again, and read some more stories before bed. the next morning...bright and ungodly early...we were up and about. i went ahead and packed up the camp after breakfast, and decided to try to actually make it past the butterfly garden this time when we hiked. sierra asked and asked when we would go hiking all morning, then while we were still within sight of the parking lot, she decided her “legs hurt” from walking so far. (click on the picture above...you can see the cars behind us. photo by aidan...sierra took the next one.) i'm not sure what i said to turn that wonderful situation around, but we took advantage of her distraction and had a great hike. we looked for bugs, tracks, birds, feathers, leaves, animals, and just enjoyed the longest mile ever! unbeknownst to me, sierra filled two pockets with acorns that i found later that evening in the washing machine...good thing they're hardy little buggers and didn't destroy the laundry. we did leaf rubbings, saw beetles and spiders, and talked about not eating berries of unknown species. fabulous!
--so, final verdict is that camping is super fun...perfect weather helped make their first trip the first of many...we're already planning our next adventure. :)
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