happy camper

First off I just want to say thank you to all of your insightful comments to my last post.  You guys are truly amazing!  I loved hearing all your input and different insights to the topic.  I felt it was really important for me to get that out and I honestly couldn’t believe their explanation after the fact.  I really appreciate all your kind words from the bottom of my heart :) 

On to something fun . . . a little vacation!

Chris and I wanted to do a little something together before the school year starts up again and we didn’t really have many funds to do something too crazy, so we decided on camping!!  You can’t beat $12/night and the great outdoors, right?!  We also decided to treat ourselves with one night at a B & B called The Anniversary House.  We went there a little while ago and absolutely fell in love with it.  It was really a treat after camping!

Originally we were going to go camping this weekend coming up, but we kept seeing the weather report that didn’t look to promising.  Camping in the rain is no fun.  We didn’t want to risk it, so on Friday afternoon we decided to leave last minute on Saturday!  You all know that I like to plan things, so I was a little freaked out by the fact that we didn’t have anything ready.  And camping’s not the kind of thing you don’t plan for! (of course this is what my head was telling me)  So I ran to the store after work and got together some recipes that we were thinking of making when we went up there with the dutch oven.  We also had to run a few errands Saturday morning to get everything, and get Buster off to the vet.  We finally hit the road by noon, and it’s only about a 3 hour drive which is not bad at all to get away. 

Because we decided to go camping so last minute, we also didn’t have a reserved spot and had to cancel our other one.  Yet another voice in my head was saying, what?! no reservation, how are we going to find a spot in the afternoon on a Saturday when everyone’s probably got the good spots already?  We decided to stick with the same campground and see what we could find for walk-ups.  And what do you know . . . we got the last one!  It was right by the toilets and trash bin, but we didn’t care.  It still had some pretty good shade, and it’s camping, so we’re supposed to be roughing it.

Here are some shots of the camp site:

 

Oh my gosh!  I can’t tell you how great it was just to get away, just the two of us.  I mean everything was smoky from the campfire, we had to sleep on the hard ground, it was 29 degrees F at night, but you know what, I haven’t seen Chris that happy in a long time with all this icky economy work stuff.  It was just really neat and made me happy too. 

We got in Saturday afternoon and immediately started setting up camp, and of course I wanted try out that dutch oven!  We didn’t have any wood and the camp host said they were out, so Chris had to go searching, but finally found some thank goodness!

Dutch ovens are amazing, it’s like a one-pot wonder that you can practically make anything in! 

We decided to make Cornbread Topped Chicken Pot Pie.  I’ve made this recipe before, but forgot to account for the altitude change.  The cornbread went crazy!  But it was still oh so good and comforting once that sun went down and the temperature dropped drastically.  Yum!

We didn’t mind the charred bits from the fire haha  It was sooo smoky.  We had to dodge the smoke or it burned our eyes like crazy! 

And of course we had to have s’mores, lots of s’mores!  This is my ultimate favorite thing about camping.  I love how the marshmallows plump up nice and big like the perfect pillow and vehicle for chocolate!

The next morning Chris got that fire going, while I huddled under the sleeping bag trying to maintain warmth without my human heater.  It’s funny because once that sun came up it was actually pretty hot!

Breakfast was Fresh Fig Oats!  I saw these fresh figs at TJ’s and I had to do something with them.  Fresh figs are just special and yummy!

I mixed and mooshed about 3 fresh figs in with 1/2 a banana and added that to the oats as they cooked.  Then I topped it with some more fresh fig, banana and TJ’s snack granola.  Of course we had to have a scoop of peanut butter with it too.  I just love oats because they’re so easy and filling.

 

After breakfast we packed up our gear and headed to Bryce Canyon for some hiking.  Boy was it beautiful!  I can’t even explain it, and my pictures don’t even begin to do it justice.  It was so surreal and peaceful there.  It really takes one back to the essence of life and marveling in the wonder of it all.

This is a place called Wall Street and it was so neat to see.  There are two giant rock walls on both sides as you zig zag your way up the mountain.  Every step there was another great picture to be taken.  I had to be careful I didn’t fall down the mountain while I was gawking in amazement!

Of course I brought lots of snacks!  You never want to go unprepared!  Here I am enjoying a Luna Bar after our 2.5 mile hike.  I think the toasted nuts and cranberry is my fav flavor.  180 kcals and 9 grams protein, yes!

 

This is one of my favorites of Chris . . . very peaceful scenery. 

Happy Campers!

Because I don’t want to drag this post on forever into that mountain far in the distance, I will end it here on the first day.  But stay tuned for day 2 of our camping and dutch oven adventures, and our stay at the B & B!

Do you like to go camping, or do you prefer a nice B & B and a hot shower instead?