Camping
We thought we'd go up to Wild River State Park yesterday and have a nice camping night. Our original dream was Friday à deux, then Saturday pick up The Girl from whoever we'd left her with and go back for Saturday night.
Didn't quite work out that way.
First, I had coursework at Capella to complete, and our PC and connection are just too slow at home. So I stayed late at work Friday night, and got home sometime after 9:00.
Check-in at Wild River is 4:00, so we had originally planned to be there at that hour. Well, with one thing and another (including some wrapup of coursework), we didn't leave until a bit after that. Which meant we got there and found they were full. Grar.
"Well," we thought, "we'll just have a cookout dinner and hang around until Herself is too sleepy to go on."
Ha.
We went up to find a picnic site, and got absolutely swarmed by mosquitoes. Poor M. kept saying "Shoo, bugs, shoo!" with a mix of annoyance, fear, and indignation. We drove back to the Information Center, where they kindly sold us some bug repellant. With that on, we were a bit better off, and went back to try again.
M. got to see lots of interesting bugs, I had an oralgasm from the hot dogs my Lovely Wife bought (I don't know what brand they are, but I want to buy about four more packs while they're on sale and freeze them. They were quite possibly the best hot dogs I've ever had), and my sweeties shared marshmallows. A good time, but the bug repellant really needs to be re-applied every twenty minutes or so, and by the time we were done eating we were also getting re-attacked.
I got two charming Father's Day cards from my sweeties, and a Utili-Key (probably from my wishlist at thinkgeek.com, although my exclamations of delight when malefica_v showed me hers might have had something to do with the decision). One more nifty way to carry tools around...
Really nice to get out and have some family fun, even with the bugs. M. was pretty well-behaved; I don't think we had to speak firmly to her the whole time we were there, although we did have to keep working on her to eat her food. There were just too many distractions for the poor girl, who has a hard enough time focusing on food at home, let alone out in the wild (or such wild as one finds at Wild River State Park).
Anyhow, as anyone local knows, it turns out to have been a Good Thing that the park was full. We had an unbelievable thunderstorm last night; by the time we got home it was like being under a cold shower. We came inside, reeking of bug repellant, charcoal smoke, general woodland griminess, and went to bed. We all needed baths or showers, but none of us were up to it.
M. was not thrilled about going to sleep, even though it was two and a half hours after her bedtime before we got home, so we decided that we'd let her sleep in with us. She'd have been sleeping with us if we'd been camping, so we thought "why not?" I'll tell you why not. I have to say, I like the idea of sleeping between two delightful ladies as much as the next guy (possibly more, depending on the next guy), but when one of them is a squirmy four-year-old, it doesn't mean I get much sleep.
So I'm a little groggy today. Not so much so that I'm useless or anything, but probably not at my very tiptop.
Happy Father's Day to all and sundry. Mine's going OK, although I should probably mow the lawn sometime today. On the other hand, M. did want me to take her for a walk, and maybe swimming, so the lawn may have to wait...
Didn't quite work out that way.
First, I had coursework at Capella to complete, and our PC and connection are just too slow at home. So I stayed late at work Friday night, and got home sometime after 9:00.
Check-in at Wild River is 4:00, so we had originally planned to be there at that hour. Well, with one thing and another (including some wrapup of coursework), we didn't leave until a bit after that. Which meant we got there and found they were full. Grar.
"Well," we thought, "we'll just have a cookout dinner and hang around until Herself is too sleepy to go on."
Ha.
We went up to find a picnic site, and got absolutely swarmed by mosquitoes. Poor M. kept saying "Shoo, bugs, shoo!" with a mix of annoyance, fear, and indignation. We drove back to the Information Center, where they kindly sold us some bug repellant. With that on, we were a bit better off, and went back to try again.
M. got to see lots of interesting bugs, I had an oralgasm from the hot dogs my Lovely Wife bought (I don't know what brand they are, but I want to buy about four more packs while they're on sale and freeze them. They were quite possibly the best hot dogs I've ever had), and my sweeties shared marshmallows. A good time, but the bug repellant really needs to be re-applied every twenty minutes or so, and by the time we were done eating we were also getting re-attacked.
I got two charming Father's Day cards from my sweeties, and a Utili-Key (probably from my wishlist at thinkgeek.com, although my exclamations of delight when malefica_v showed me hers might have had something to do with the decision). One more nifty way to carry tools around...
Really nice to get out and have some family fun, even with the bugs. M. was pretty well-behaved; I don't think we had to speak firmly to her the whole time we were there, although we did have to keep working on her to eat her food. There were just too many distractions for the poor girl, who has a hard enough time focusing on food at home, let alone out in the wild (or such wild as one finds at Wild River State Park).
Anyhow, as anyone local knows, it turns out to have been a Good Thing that the park was full. We had an unbelievable thunderstorm last night; by the time we got home it was like being under a cold shower. We came inside, reeking of bug repellant, charcoal smoke, general woodland griminess, and went to bed. We all needed baths or showers, but none of us were up to it.
M. was not thrilled about going to sleep, even though it was two and a half hours after her bedtime before we got home, so we decided that we'd let her sleep in with us. She'd have been sleeping with us if we'd been camping, so we thought "why not?" I'll tell you why not. I have to say, I like the idea of sleeping between two delightful ladies as much as the next guy (possibly more, depending on the next guy), but when one of them is a squirmy four-year-old, it doesn't mean I get much sleep.
So I'm a little groggy today. Not so much so that I'm useless or anything, but probably not at my very tiptop.
Happy Father's Day to all and sundry. Mine's going OK, although I should probably mow the lawn sometime today. On the other hand, M. did want me to take her for a walk, and maybe swimming, so the lawn may have to wait...