IRC: Camping Edition

My guys on a morning walk to collect shells.

So we went camping.  Just for one night, but that was all we needed.  IT WAS HOT.  I can handle camping: the bugs, horrible sleep in a tent, the bugs, cooking in a *modified* kitchen, and did I mention the bugs?  What I cannot handle all that well IS THE EXTREME HEAT. 

Read it carefully: allegedly it was 88* but felt like freaking 102* because of the 75% humidity.  I mean, really?  I grew up camping at the beach, in San Diego, America's Finest City (their words, not mine, but I stand behind that moto 100%).  There is NO WAY the temperatures even came close to 102*.  I swear to you that my bathing suit was wet from perspiring, not from swimming in the Chesapeake.  Ok, I will move on.  I just wanted everyone to know how disgustingly hot and sweaty it was.

The boys got to try their very first campfire s'mores.  They hated them.  Obviously.  Despite how bright this photo is, it was like 8:30pm and we actually got them to sleep not long after this.  Melatonin for the win!

Love our little camp stove!

So this blog is supposed to be about food, so I'll get to it.  We made some yummy coffeee on our percolator - we haven't quite figured out how to avoid a final mouthful of coffee grounds.  We'll keep trying.  What I REALLY want to talk about is the cast iron breakfast.  First I fried the bacon - cast irons are amazing conductors of heat and that delish bacon was done in minutes!  And not pictured?  The divine scrambled eggs made with a mixture of butter and bacon fat.  WHAAAT?  It was so stinking delish!!!  Added some cheese and we were all quite pleased with our meal.

The lads enjoying some eggs and backey!

Overall, a fun sweaty adventure made even more memorable by a night in a hotel in Virginia Beach!  Honestly, best way to finish up camping is a nice cool hotel room with a shower that doesn't require shower shoes!  We took the concierge's recommendation and went to Waterman's on the strip and YUM.

Here I go again with the heat.  We walked 14 blocks, in 100* heat to...eat outside?! I was a bit miffed but whatevs.  The wine was cold, the view was beautiful and we had a fun family night.  Owen ordered fish tacos because he is my adventurous eater and I LOVE IT.  All of it.

I mean.  He is the most adorable.  I love him.

So that is camping/VA Beach in a nutshell.  We will definitely be camping again this summer but we might try a mountain lake with the hopes that it won't be as hot?!  We also *might* need to invest in a larger tent!

A Fishing We Will Go...

Jeremy went fishing on our very first camping trip!  These babies are 35 pounds a piece.  Nice, right?  I'd like to say that he actually caught one of these suckers and we served it up for dinner around the camp fire, but that would be a lie.  Jeremy was not so lucky to catch one of these suckers.  In fact, he didn't catch a thing.  These babies were caught off a fishing boat - they just happened to be downloaded at the pier right by where we were sun bathing, so we came to inspect these fine specimen.  Have you ever watched professional fishermen in action?  Um, what an interesting species.    

Anyfood, we went on our very first camping trip!  This was big for two reasons: 1) there was no TV and 2) I've never been camping without a motor home (except once, and I was with extremely experienced campers that had all the fancy gear).  So we had to fend for ourselves around the campfire and camp stove.  I would say it was a raving success!
The first night we had dogs and corn...the corn took about 4 hours.  Seriously, the fire simply was not hot enough.  At Virginia State Parks, you aren't permitted to bring in your own fire wood - you are forced to buy their damp, moldy wood.  So it burns slow, low, and smokey (Jeremy was baffled that I knew this - however, even though I grew up in a motor home, we camped every single summer and Easter Break until I graduated from high school.  I did learn a thing or two about camp fires!)  Anyfood, the dogs were delish, however they were covered in a wee bit of smoke and char which I wasn't too excited about.  The corn, once it FINALLY cooked was delish!
The first morning, J fired up our brand new camp stove!  It took a bit for us to figure out that the stove was actually lit...apparently the caps over the burners prevent us from seeing the flames.  Good to know.  Anyfood, we had turkey bacon, flat fried eggs, cantaloupe, and watermelon.  We also tried out our new percolator - YUMMY coffee.  For serious.  However, we ground our coffee a little too fine so there were some grounds in our joe.  If you look close enough you will notice a picture of yours truly on the coffee mug - I think I might have been about one or two in that snap shot.  For my 16th birthday my ever-so-thoughtful parents took me and a group of friends camping at Doheny - the party faves were pics of each of the girls on their own mug.  My mom had contacted their parents ahead of time to get the pics.  She recently sent my mug to me, and I thought it was fitting that I use it on this trip.  We'll have to get one for the J man!
Night number two I made burritos!  My cousin JJ and her husband are avid campers and highly recommend burritos.  OMG, fabulous!  A must for our next trip.  Piece of cake to chop up some bell peppers, red onions, and 1/2 a jalapeno; heat up some refried beans (vegetarian kind - no lard for me thanks!); toss in some taco meat that we used earlier this week and ta-da!  SO GOOD.

Great trip, great company, and great food!