Camp Pepper

A bit tired and sunburned at story time, Night #2.

Pepper loves camping!

Sebastian looking for his friends.

Corban came over for a friendly hello each morning.

Goofy guys!

For our vacation this year, we were invited to join Sid, Zara and their family, as well as a number of their friends, at the Oregon coast. Manzanita, to be exact. We were pretty excited to take Pepper on her first camping trip and we were also excited to try out car camping ourselves. We have done a lot of backpacking in the past 8 years, but not much car camping. Thankfully, Katrina loaned us tons of great car camping gear. She has these wonderful, organized bins with everything from dish towels to spices to pots and pans. Not only did she loan us great camping stuff but also loaned us Sebastian for the week! We were so excited to have a him along. Corban was also very excited to have his good friend along to play with.
Our first challenge of the trip came when we were trying to pack up the Subaru in Walla Walla. After a few hours of rearranging Jo figured out that even with the rocket box, he could not fit our stuff into the car, and this was BEFORE we had picked up most of the camping gear from Katrina. We obviously are rookie car campers. Thankfully Jo's parents came to the rescue and loaned us Big Blue. I am a bit embarrassed to admit how full the Excursion was...
The first night at the campsite we faced our second big challenge. We have never set up a huge tent, especially not a huge tent with pole pieces to put together, and stakes and ropes etc. Thankfully, our neighbors came over to help us (it only took four adults and one child), and finally it was up. It was almost as big as the house we currently live in, I was amazed! Sebastian had his space, Pepper had a pack and play to sleep in, and Jo and I had a large air mattress, as well as various bags and other gear. Crazy! I was also pleased to find that the bathrooms were great. They were clean and the showers were private, with very warm water. This was luxury, and made beach time much more enjoyable. I think I could get used to car camping!