Camping With Maura

This past weekend Jennifer and I took Maura camping. It was her first camping trip. We had been talking about camping all summer but we didn’t have a tent and it was hard to find a weekend we could go. We finally decided that we would go Columbus Day Weekend, weather allowing, knowing that it would be the last chance we would have this year. We borrowed a tent from our friends the Tittlers, bought a new sleeping bag for Maura and found the rest of our gear in closets and the shed.

The week before the trip it looked like we might have to wait for spring. The whole family was down with a nasty cold. Maura was out sick from school for two days and I felt sick enough on Saturday night that I came home early from work. When we woke on Sunday, though, we felt well enough for camping. We had a good breakfast, loaded up the car with our food and camping gear and headed for Shawme-Crowell State Forest in Sandwich at the base of Cape Cod.

We had a good time on our trip. There were no disasters. On Sunday afternoon we stayed near our campsite enjoying the tasks of setting up camp, gathering firewood and cooking dinner. We got a nice fire going and after the sun went down and it got chilly we huddled around it. We toasted marshmallows for s’mores and sang songs. Well after dark we walked down the road to a clearing and looked at the stars. We couldn’t identify many of the constellations but we could see many more stars than we get to see when we look at the night sky here in Weymouth. It might have been the first time Maura got to see real darkness outside.

After star gazing we retired to our sleeping bags and settled in for the night. We didn’t sleep well. It was cold and none of us was used to sleeping in a tent but it was still fun. When we got up to use the bathroom the moon had risen and though it was only a crescent it was bright enough to cast shadows.

A few hours later we woke to a cold (but not quite frosty) morning. I got the fire going again and started the stove to heat water for hot cocoa and make our breakfast oatmeal. After breakfast we broke camp, packed up and cleaned up the campsite. We put Maura in charge of picking up bits of paper, most of it left behind by previous campers. We wanted to leave the site cleaner than we found it.

The rest of the morning and early afternoon we spent hiking and exploring around Sandwich. We hiked a bit in Shawme-Crowell, visited the Cape Cod Canal and learned about it at the Canal Visitor Center and explored the Greenbriar Nature Center and Jam Kitchen. Then we had a large lunch at a restaurant and headed back home. We had a wonderful time and everyone agreed we would go camping again in the spring.