The Weekend

I just got back this afternoon from one of my most anticipated weekends of the year! I've been waiting for this weekend since last year September. Last year this time we we got together with a bunch of girls and surprised our good friend Danielle with a camping weekend for her 30th birthday. We thought it was such a great weekend, we'd do it again - make it an annual type of weekend. Although most of the girls who went last year agreed that an annual outing would be fun, most of them were unable to make it - therefore leaving just Danielle, Lauren and myself to venture out to Port Burwell for the weekend. And what a weekend it was!

We left Hamilton around 8pm - yes, that would be 8 o'clock in the evening - and not only was it evening, we enjoyed several major downpours on our way to Port Burwell too! We passed several hotels and inns on the way, so that was a little bit of comfort knowing that we could always head back to one of those if the rain continued to pour.

After reaching our destination at 10:30pm - yes, that would be the late evening now - and very very dark - but even though it was super dark, at least the rain had stopped. We scouted the campsite (well, as much as we could see of it anyway!) to find the best place for our tent. Below are two pictures of our first spot - um, yah, good thing we changed our minds on that one! The puddles grew from big to bigger...we would have had to swim out of our tent to get our coffee!!)

We were able to set up the tent without getting drenched in the meantime - first set up the tarp over top, then popped up the tent. We thought we did a great job tarping (key word - "thought") until the rain came down again. Then the rain gathered quite "heavily" in the tarp over top of the tent, and it seemed to be too late to try again.

Hmmm...this wasn't looking too good! So, an executive decision was made - we would sleep in the van (we had borrowed Danielle's parents van - thanks Mr. and Mrs. "M"!). So, we dragged two air mattresses and squished them into the back and fit 3 of us back there too. We talked and laughed for the first hour or more - then decided it was time to go to sleep. We all slept 'width-wise', fitting nice and snug in the back of the van - good thing it was an extended!

We got up the next morning and decided to re-tarp the tent - giving it another shot before getting hit with more rain - yes, the rain had stopped once again, giving us the opportunity to set up without becoming drowned rats. So, we tarped again, and boy oh boy, this time we struck gold! I think we talked about our FANTASTIC tarping job for hours after we were done - quite impressed that we were able to come up with another tarp design that would keep us dry in the tent (another night in the van wasn't looking too comfy, even though by then it would only be Danielle and I). The ultimate test would be lots and lots and lots of rain - and well, there was no shortage of that!! The tarp held great and it would be safe by nightfall to sleep in our spacious tent (8 person tent for 2 of us....it would be nice to stretch out!!).

My knotting skills put to the test

Danielle using her sandal to throw the rope over a high branch

The finished product...wow...look out boyscouts...these girls know what they're doing!!

During the day we busied ourselves with eating delicious sugar sandwiches, drinking coffee, eating wonderful cookies (with too many yummy ingredients to list) - and these were for breakfast! We played a few games (my new favourite game is now Carcassonne) and took a walk at the beach (very short - it was raining very hard again here), and took a long walk around the campground, taking random pictures of all sorts of things.

Our lonely firepit...just a tad too wet to get this baby going!!

Lauren left late that afternoon, so it was just Danielle and I for the evening - we enjoyed a late dinner of bacon and eggs and many games of Carcassonne that evening. We turned in quite a bit earlier than the last night (11pm compared to after 2am the night before!), enjoying the spacious tent this time, and also stayed relatively dry (the ground was damp, but our air mattresses kept us dry).

When we woke up in the morning, we were treated to some blue skies (only a little bit of cloud) and sunshine!! Couldn't believe it! The sun was out! We were supposed to get rain again that day (and we thought all day too) - so this was perfect! There's nothing worse then packing up your campsite in the rain, so thankfully we were able to air out the tents a little and pack up surprisingly dry. Once packed up we headed for home.

We had a great weekend camping - despite the rain, rain and more rain - we had a lot of fun. All you need is a good attitude and some great friends - what a perfect weekend! Looking forward to next year already ;)