Summer is abounding in our house. The carefree, lazy feeling of warm days and sweet summer evenings......the smell of the grill and sound of laughter as we gather on the back porch with our friends.....camping trips and other romps through the woods......cool dips in the lake when you feel as though you'll melt from the heat of the brilliant days......yes, the evidence of summer permeates our very thoughts.
We have hosted a myriad of BBQs in our back yard and it seems nearly every weekend is packed with activities (usually involving at least one other family). My poor calendar is about to revolt if I mark it up any more.
Most recently, we went camping with our friends, the Eleys. Finding an open campsite anywhere near the ocean (which is one of our favorite destinations when camping with them) in the summer is something akin to staking out a claim in the pioneer days. If you are lucky enough to actually find something in a relatively convenient proximity to a bathroom, you had better dig in your stakes and spread those poles as fast as you can. There is no "keeping it in mind while we look for a better one" in this game! That is why we were so surprised to actually find an opening at Loon Lake Lodge on Hwy. 38 just past Drain, OR. We booked a group site as there were 11 of us in all.
The camp was very nice. Located directly across the street from the little lodge store/restaurant, it was very convenient indeed. Each and every site there was set up with its own port-a-potty so the bathroom was handy. (Though, our arrival was timed a little off....they had just had a group of about 40 people in our site who left earlier in the day and let's just say the bathrooms weren't exactly pleasant until they had been cleaned out 2 days later.....ICK!)
One of the highlights of the place was that the local deer population was very accustomed to being fed by the employees of the lodge. Every day, someone would set out some sort of food (resembling oats for horses) for the deer in various places around the lodge. The deer didn't seem to mind people much and even ate out of our hands a few times.
The kids and Big Daddy really got a kick out of this. Several times the deer wandered up into our campsite and nosed around a bit. They came quite close to us, yet were still on their guard and if we made any sudden moves they bounded away.
I have to admit it was rather exhilarating to walk out of your tent in the early morning and nearly trip over a young buck! Wow.
One of my favorite parts of camping, if I had to choose one, is sitting by the crackling fire. I love the smell of the wood burning.
We thoroghly enjoyed ourselves and plan on planning ahead for next year to reserve another site across the way from where we were this time. The other site had 2 yurts. If you've never camped in one of those you are missing out on one cool thing! We love yurts! I will write more about those ingenious inventions some other time. For now, I will leave you with a few pictures to enjoy.
Much love,
Mama
No comments:
Post a Comment