I had a blog post draft saved on our Camano Island camping trip last summer. Well, let me rephrase this: I had a blog post title saved. I never got around to writing it.
This time, I will get further than just a blog camping post title.
We camped one night at Seaquest State Park in the Southwestern part of Washington state a few weeks ago. It actually all came together very last minute — at least last minute to me since I am a planner. Bryce booked the campsite just three days prior.
Just like many other people/families, our summer is packed full with lots of activities, events, invites — and later in the summer, travel! — so we never booked a campsite earlier this year. But, we started poking around on the Washington State Parks online reservation system to see what may be available because we already had plans to meet my cousin and her friend at Cape Disappointment for the day. (This was a mid-point to meet between where she lives in Oregon and us in Seattle.) Lo and behold, camp spots were popping up as available every now and again. I think what happens is that people who made their reservation back in the winter or spring were now canceling so then it would only be available for a short period before someone (like us) snatched it up. We didn’t want to risk not being able to have a camp site on the way or in close proximity to Cape Disappointment so we booked Seaquest since it was on the way-ish.
So much easier with a (mostly) potty-trained toddler
As we drove to the camp grounds Friday afternoon with our toddler asleep in her carseat, Bryce turned to me and said, “I can’t believe we used to do this when she was in diapers.”
“I know,” I replied. “We just made frequent stops and changed her in the trunk of the car!” (We had a Camry at the time so we were literally changing her in the trunk.)
We arrived at our camp site around 5pm and the kiddo helped Bryce pitch the tent. (You read that correctly, I didn’t have to lift a finger when it came to the tent! Three-year-olds are so helpful when they want to be!) After we got everything set up, we went on a walk to first explore the nearby playground at Seaquest State Park and then to a nearby lake that boasted a view of Mt. St. Helens. After playing at the playground, our kiddo decided she didn’t want to explore more so she was a little grumpy once we got to the lake. Of course, once there and walking across the boardwalk type ramps, she started having fun and didn’t want to leave.
We went back to camp to greet my parents who stopped by our campsite for dinner. And by stop by, I mean that they made curry and brought it to share with all of us. After we finished eating, our toddler checked out the Ranger Program that evening which was learning about habitats and ecosystems from a park ranger, and creating your own habitat for a creature of your choice using different colored paper and art supplies. She made a pond for a frog and after showing and explaining what she did to the ranger, she received a certificate of completion and Junior Ranger badge. She proudly wore the badge and for some reason quickly gave up her habitat to her grandma (“Here, you can have it!”) Before my parents left, we took them to the lake to show them the view and it was a nice, cooler stroll than just a few hours earlier when we had gone.
Who sleeps when camping, anyway?
By the time we said bye to my parents, it was after 8:30 pm but still fairly light outside. We tidied up our camp site and got ready for bed. The kiddo said she had to go to the bathroom a second time (after we already had her in her pajamas and were in the tent) and I really thought she was stalling going to sleep since it’s so exciting to be camping (!) but she really did have to pee a second time. Glad to know we are keeping our kid hydrated on these warm (for Washington state) summer days. It had been in the 80s and I can’t even remember the last time it rained! (Note to those local to Seattle who are reading this: I started writing this post long before the rain we had yesterday.)
Oh, and because I forgot to pack her nighttime pull-ups, Bryce had to make a drive out to a store at like 9:30 pm. While our toddler is potty trained during the day, she still wears a pull-up at night. When are kids fully potty trained anyway? Anyway, the annoying thing about the whole forgetting-pull-ups thing is that I didn’t write a packing list (which I normally do) and I remember grabbing two pull-ups — one as an extra just in case! — and at some point when I was packing I must have left them somewhere random like in the kitchen when getting distracted by something else! Note to self: always write a list.
Oh, and, of course, the next morning her pull-up was completely dry! (You know if we had risked the one night with no pull-up, it would have been a different story.)
Back to how the evening went: She was still up and awake and literally bouncing up and down on the air mattress at 10 pm. I think around 10:30 pm we were able to get her settled and into her sleeping bag but she was still talking. She must have fallen asleep close to 11 pm. (For those of you who are not parents, an optimal asleep time for her at home would be 8 pm and on very bad sleep nights she’s asleep at 10 pm.)
I didn’t fall asleep until around midnight (but I have no one to blame but myself since I was catching up on text messages from earlier in the day and, uh, my newsfeed.) While Bryce and the kiddo got to share the nice inflated and durable air mattress, I slept on a one-person sleeping pad with our dog at my feet. At home we let her (the dog, not the kid) sleep at the foot of our bed but in the bed, there is more space than my sleeping pad so I felt quite cramped.
At 5:30 am I woke up. I had to pee. I sat up and see that Bryce is awake.
“Do you have to pee, too?” I ask.
No, he just couldn’t sleep well. (But, this isn’t new, the same thing happens at home.)
I tried to go back to sleep but I could not. I finally gave up and got up to walk to the restroom. This state park has flushing toilets at the campground, as do all (or at least most) of the Washington State Parks campgrounds. Luckily, it was not a far walk from our campsite. And it was already light enough that I didn’t need my headlamp.
Surprisingly, I didn’t hear anyone else. No one in the vicinity seemed to be awake. I didn’t even really hear any birds chirping. So the sound of my footsteps on the gravel road and gravel path leading up to the bathroom sounded SO LOUD. “Gosh, I hope I don’t wake anyone up with my normal walking,” I thought to myself.
After I used the bathroom and walked back to our tent, I heard someone make a loud noise very briefly. I couldn’t tell if it was an actual word (or two short words slurred together?) or just someone yelling in their sleep. Of course, my first instinct was that my loud footsteps woke them up and that they were yelling at me. I continued to walk as quickly and quietly as I could back to our tent.
Once back in the tent, I closed my eyes and tried to go back to sleep. But, by now the birds were awake and chirping up a storm. By 5:45 am, I gave up all together and told Bryce (who yes, was still awake) that I was going to take our dog on a walk.
Yep, we went back to that lake.
A peaceful, quick morning
There was not another person (or dog) out at Larsen Lake, which is literally across the street (OK, highway) from Seaquest State Park. There is a convenient pedestrian tunnel that you can take to get safely from the state park to the lake trail.
Mt. St. Helens looked moody with a some fog across it while some light pink and purple tones speckled the sky. My dog and I walked the full loop around the lake (which is only about a mile), which was nice since despite going here twice the night before, we didn’t have time to do the loop both times.
Other than some birds, I didn’t see any other wildlife. I saw evidence of another type of (recent) wildlife — a part of a frog body that was on the boardwalk. I’m assuming a bird didn’t like it and discarded it?
When we got back to our camp site after our leisurely morning stroll, Bryce and the kiddo were still asleep. (Yeah, I guess somehow he was able to fall back asleep despite it being lighter and louder out.)
I got out my journal and caught up on a few entries. Anyone else try to journal daily but always seem to be playing catch up? I mean, I guess you shouldn’t be surprised if you still follow me here on this blog (and Instagram) since I do trip/vacation recaps not only months, but years later. And, I was like this even before having a child!
The two woke up a little after 7 am and I started packing up the insides of the tent (packing sleeping bags, putting clothes away, deflating the mattress, etc.) while Bryce and his sous chef got breakfast ready. They made us breakfast burritos!
While we were by no means rushed, we also didn’t have a lot of extra time. We wanted to leave camp by 9:30 am so that we could meet up with my cousin, her friend and my parents at Cape Disappointment on the Washington Coast, which would be a 2 hour+ drive from our campsite. And, although we had set 12:30 pm for all of us to meet there, I wanted to give us a one-hour buffer because you never know how many stops you’ll need to make with a toddler and dog. (Well, our dog is actually low maintenance when it comes to road trips. She doesn’t complain and is a great passenger.)
While it was short, this camping trip was by far the smoothest compared to the past two summers. Year 1 we had a baby — at age 1, she was still a baby, right? — and nearly had to abandon the trip at like 2 in the morning. She wouldn’t stop crying and we were afraid we were going to wake everyone up at the campground, not to forget our friends who we had shared a campsite with! We didn’t end up leaving completely but we did have to take her on a drive in the car where she immediately fell asleep and then I slept in the car upright with her in the car the rest of the night (I mean, morning.) Bryce slept in the tent alone that time because we were too lazy at that point to move our dog back to the tent, too. Year 2 (last year) was a success because we did all our cooking ourselves and we all slept (some amount at least) in the tent, and didn’t get rained on despite some sprinkles.
I don’t regret camping with a one-year-old but, everyone is right, it just keeps getting easier and easier as the weeks/months/years pass by with your kid. And, I’m not saying camping with a toddler is easy. It just gets easier.
Oh, and I definitely overpacked for one night of camping. I was pretty ambitious to think we’d have time for board games or for her to ride her scooter or for us to fly kites. But, you know, I had them just in case.
Perhaps next year we can plan ahead and camp a full weekend to have time for these said activities.
otter travel more 