Camping – Day 2

The first thing I did Monday morning (June 30th) was sing praises to my air mattress (inwardly, of course). I felt nary a rock, bump or crag during the night. After hanging out in my pjs, flip-flops and fleece for a while, Amanda and I drove to a nearby campground to “borrow” their showers (our campground didn’t have a shower). The showers actually had hot water… and bugs. As I was stepping into my shower stall, the woman who was in there before me mentioned that she had seen an earwig and hopefully had killed it. Yeah, I hoped so, too. Ugh!

After the shower adventure, we drove up to Depoe Bay for some fun in the… not sun. Amanda told us that the world’s best salt-water taffy is made in Depoe Bay, Ainslee's Salt Water Taffy, to be exact. As you can see from the pictures below, the kids thoroughly enjoyed watching the taffy being made. It was really cool, but the coolest thing about it was that the guy making the taffy was on his cell phone the whole time. We’re talking 15-20 minutes, at least. My neck would totally be killing me after keeping a phone to my ear for that long. We went back later in the day and I bought some taffy, flavors include: Cheesecake, Eggnog, Extreme Cinnamon, Chocolate Peanut Butter, Watermelon and Piña Colada, to name a few. Yummy!!




That afternoon we went on a Whale Watching tour. We all sat on the bow of the boat and were totally wet within the first 2 minutes. Amanda’s 3-year-old nephew, Zane, was sitting on my lap, and after getting splashed, wanted to go into the cabin. As soon as we sat down he looked at me and said: “I want to go back now.” Poor guy, he was holding on to my sweatshirt for dear life. I had my arm around him, but at one point wanted to give him some room, so I moved my arm away. Zane immediately grabbed my hand and moved my arm back into place. So cute – it was nice to feel needed. We did get him outside the cabin a couple of times after that, but Zane’s not a fan of the boat ride – at least in the cold. We didn’t see any whales (isn’t that the point of a Whale Watching tour?), but the scenery was absolutely gorgeous. Again, I was struck by how blessed we are to live in such a beautiful world.



During the time I spent in the cabin with Zane, I overheard the following conversation (paraphrased, of course) between an older lady – she was probably in her 60’s or 70’s – and the captain’s two sons.

Boy 1: “Which one of us do you think is older?”
Lady (to Boy 1): “You are.”
Boy 2: “Everybody thinks that. I’m actually 2 years older.”
Boy 1: “How old do you think we are?”
Lady (to Boy 2): “You’re 32, which means [to Boy 1] that you’re 30.”
Let me interject here for a second. Both of these boys looked like they were 10 – OK, 10 might be an exaggeration, but they both looked like teenagers to me, so when she said 32 I about peed my pants.
Boy 1: “I’m 19.”

I was laughing so hard – on the inside.

And of course, part of the fun of camping is hanging around the campfire, eating s’mores, etc. However, I have a problem with s’mores. I love the ooey, gooey marshmallows. I’m not a big fan of graham crackers, but they are a vehicle for chocolate and the aforementioned ooey, gooey marshmallows. I need to figure out a way to get the chocolate as ooey and gooey as the marshmallows. I tried putting the chocolate and graham crackers in tin foil and set that on the fire (Danielle had tried this earlier with a Pop Tart), but for some reason, it didn’t melt. PLUS, I’m a chocolate snob and, next time, will invest in a better chocolate than Hershey’s wax, I mean chocolate. Maybe less waxy chocolate will melt better? Ideas?



But wait, there’s more…