Sunday, June 29, 2014

Let the good times roll!

SUMMER IS FINALLY HERE!

Growing up, I was always a huge fan of summer.  It was one of my favorite seasons.  But, then I became an adult with adult responsibilities and summer kind of lost its *oomph* for me.  

Not anymore.

With the addition of Stella, I am like a little kid again, counting the days down until Summer arrived. Knowing that we have some awesome trips planned for the next few months makes it so hard to be patient.  Never been my strong suit anyway.

Finally - trip #1 arrived. 

Since our last big trip to La Conner, we hadn't had much opportunity to take her out.  We did plan a last minute trip up to Wenberg State Park  for Memorial Day weekend.  It wasn't much to write about, although we had a fantastic time and met some super nice people AND got to try out my cast iron dutch oven,  but we wanted to do a test run with Stella to make sure nothing went wrong.  We weren't disappointed - made it home in one piece (this time).

Breakfast - eggs, pototoes, sausage, and cheese.   It didn't suck but I forgot the Tapatio. :(

We also made pizza as well as an apple cinnamon coffee cake. 

Say hello to my new favorite Christmas gift from my inlaws.

Now, fast forward to our first big summer trip:  Spectacle Lake outside of Tonasket, WA.  Its about 25 miles from the Canadian border and an almost 5 hour drive from our home. It also was the first time we would be driving over one of the Washington mountain passes.  Needless to say, we were both pretty nervous but we made it over with no glitches.  Ryan actually learned more about using the "tow haul" feature on the Durango, and it made the whole trip easier for him. 


We decided to leave the night before and stay at the Alpine RV resort in Leavenworth click here.  It was a nice, clean park but I wouldn't recommend parking for more than a day or two, especially with kids.    It was a good idea for us to break the trip to Spectacle Lake in twos, and when we headed out for the second half of the trip, the kids were much happier than they would have been driving straight through.  WIN. 

Finally we arrived at  Spectacle Lake Resort.  It is one of my favorite places to visit but mostly because of its emotional meaning to me.  My grandparents retired in the next town over, Loomis WA, and they are buried right outside of the resort.  Its a chance for me to go visit their graves, clean them up, and say hi.
 The view from across the lake.

 This time of year, the weather tends to be warm on a good day and blazing hot on most days.  Thank God we have A/C, right?  Well, guess what, friends?  We lost our power around 6:30 AM on day two.  That's right.  No A/C.  We still had power to our fridge and lights and stuff, as those run on battery or propane.  But NO A/C.  And the temp in our trailer at one time was 92 degrees.  Pretty close to the exact temperature of hell.  Luckily, our neighbors did have A/C and our friends staying in a cabin did too, so we could visit them to cool off when we weren't swimming in the pool. 




Y'all know that I like to cook, and that carries over to camping as well.  I bought some new accessories for the dutch oven and was excited to try them out.   Hello, dutch oven pizza.  Well, they didn't quite turn out as well as I'd liked and we kind of caught the grass on fire while cooking them. Luckily, our neighbor on the other side was a volunteer firefighter.  Unluckily, he was too drunk to notice the smoldering grass and kept talking to Ryan rather than helping me put out the cinders.  No one noticed the scorched ground, right?  


  We added some new items to our repertoire. Some things that we thought we might need or are just plain cool.  An inflatable raft.  Extra long tongs and gloves to use with the dutch oven.  Even a wireless thermometer for the refrigerator. 



We also brought along our smoker.  Yep, you read that right.  We smoked a 5 lb briskent (without almost starting a forest fire) and it was AH-mazing.



All in all, it was a fantastic trip.  Great friends, great weather.  Even with no A/C.  Which is now fixed, by the way.  Turns out that Forest River did not bother to screw in a wiring panel that housed the power supply.  Geniuses.  




We are three days out from trip #2.  This one is over to Idaho, Silverwood Amusement Park. I.  Cannot.  Wait.  Not only do I LOVE roller coasters (but absolutely hate circular, spinning rides) but I also LOVE fireworks.  SQUEEEEEEE!!!

See y'all on the road!!

XOXO, 
Stella

  

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