Have you ever played "I never"?  Up until a couple of weeks ago I could have said that I never camped out in a city park (that I know of).  And then I did. It wasn't just pulling up to the playground and hauling out the tent, they had a campground and 50 cent showers.  Our friends had asked if our family could join them on a camp out. My first thought was our previous church camp out and I was hesitant.  Lots of people, sharing camp sites, out house toilets that were disgusting due to kids missing the toilet all together.  I mean euw, gross.  My second thought flashed back to camping at Lake Chelan where we were packed in like sardines and people would cut across our camp site to go to the lake instead of walking around.  We have more room in our back yard then five sites put together there.  So I was leery but we like our friends and thought why not.  I haven't car camped for at least 8 years!  I think Lona may have been 3 or 4 the last time we went.  We've boat camped or backpacked but haven't driven in and set up camp. Being a family of five we had a ton of different schedules to work with.  Lona and I headed out early Friday morning so that we could find a good non reservable camp site.  Once there we quickly found two sites together and I paid for both of them. I set up our tents while Lona found the perfect site for her hammock.  We ate lunch and started pulling things out of the van.  Then our friends showed up and we moved things around helped them set up their new tent, and hauled their gear out. The kids went exploring, while we waited for John to show up from work and Isaac and Job to show up after school.  Mark  our friend also drove down seperately.  At one point on Friday we had five cars there!  We grilled steaks wrapped in bacon and ate like kings. We needed someone to stay home with the animals and since Isaac had a soccer game he volunteered.  Can you blame him? So he drove home that Friday night.  I ended up driving home for a mock wedding the next day and driving back.  Then John and Job came home on Sunday.  Job had school on Monday.  We were planning to stay until Wednesday but it started sprinkling around noon on Monday and we packed up to head home.  Lona and I needed to drive back on Monday anyway due to soccer practice and it being the first practice and all.  Some of the highlights of the camp out were the deer and fawns that would wander through the camp ground.  Lona had squirrels in her hammock while she was sleeping trying to get her can of Pringles.  I ate way too much and it was good, although I gained 5 pounds!  Sunday night I had the tent all to myself and loved it.  I really enjoyed getting up early and wandering down to the shore to sit in the morning for about an hour, enjoying the quiet.  Breakfast sausage and fire bread stuffed with nutella were cooked over the fire in pie irons. I think Job ate 6 breakfast sausages all by himself.  He just sat there turning his pie iron over and over and over again. We also cooked bread twisted on sticks. We had starbucks via coffee in the morning and cold brew coffee in the afternoons, followed by wine in a box, hard cider and micro brews in the evening.  The kids explored and wandered all over the 220 acres.  Ellie tried out her new lens and I am envious of it.  We explored the tide pools and found all sorts of cool creatures like eels and hermit crab. The boys built a cool fort out of drift wood and split a log with rocks. It was amazing and fun and we came home happy and smelling of camp fire.