Jul 19 2007
Weekend at Cultus Lake
This past weekend, my wife, kids and I went camping at Cultus Lake. Our friends Cathy and Gord, and their two boys drove down from Penticton to spend the weekend camping with us as well.
When I originally reserved the campsite in May, I was told that as long as I phoned back within 2 weeks of the reservation, I could arrange to have our campsites together with Cathy and Gords. However, when I phoned back in early July, I was told that would not be possible to arrange, because this campsite “does not allow for special requests”.
We were a little choked at this, but I thought that I’d try again upon arrival. When we drove up the the gatehouse of the campgrounds, the attendant informed me that they could have made those arrangements, if they had known in advance.
So, we dealt with the fact that we weren’t going to be side by side. They were within a 5 minute walk from us, but the idea was that when we put the kids to bed, we would all sit around the campfire. Instead, after the kids were attempting to sleep, Cathy would come to our site to chat with Colleen, and I would go over to Gord’s site to build a big campfire, and talk.
The kids all seemed to have a great time, especially with us having Megan’s 2nd birthday party while camping. I don’t know exactly what my problem was, but I was in a mood for most of the weekend. I was miserable to be around; I freely admit that. Maybe it was I was getting a little stressed out, because every time I turned around, the kids were:
- running into the road,
- getting too close to the campfire,
- beating each other up (Megan is the worst for that!),
- firing plastic balls up the tailpipe of our van,
- running into/climbing on the tent,
Or maybe I should just lighten up. They are kids after all!
I remember when I was a kid, or even in my early 20’s, I’d go camping. Many times, Mark and I would hook up his trailer and go for a couple of days. Now, camping just seems like I lot of work..
In the end, I suppose that the camping trip wasn’t so bad.. I did get to relax a little.. and as long as my 3 girls remember these carefree times that they have, and the fun they had camping, then it’s worth it.. I just need to relax a little….
For pictures of the camping trip, just click here! (Sorry.. link is broken right now. I’ll get it fixed sometime in the next week – Oct 11/07.)
Loved the photos Cam!
Sorry to hear that it was stressful for you, but I guess that comes with the whole parenting thing, after all. Just remember how fondly the girls will look back on this trip, and the others to follow. Some of my best memories are of camping trips, and not all of them were perfect. Even the ones where the tarps cave in to sudden hail storms come to be cherished memories!
Cultus Lake is where I got the absolute worst sunburn of my life – I fell asleep on the dock. If you found it stressful, perhaps you need that 4 – 6 weeks off more than you realized.