It was a nice idea. Moon's weekend between rotations, free for family time. Why not test out camping with the baby? The only night we could do it was Saturday, so we planned to find a place not too far from Portland. No reservation. Trying to keep it simple. What we couldn't plan for was the 100 degree heat. Hottest day of the year so far. And hottest by a good 10 degrees. But we were still going. So we went and put up the tent and decided to throw on swimsuits and hike to the falls where we could dip in the cool water. The hike proved to be a bit more than we anticipated, though Eli slept the way out and we managed the heat. The water was great. We felt refreshed and headed back. A minor injury and a lost baby sun hat later we were back at camp. Moon's ankle got twisted. He was able to get back without too much pain, but was limping a bit. We were clearly not thinking this would be more than a birkenstock kind of hike (I was thinking more "walk in the woods" actually). So we had a very nice dinner at our campsite and I attempted to put Eli down in stuffy, hot tent and then I realized this was a bit crazy. We tried. But injuries and hot, hot days remind us why we love our climate controlled comfortable homes with beds and furniture we can prop said injured ankle up on. So I suggested we bail. And Moon kind of agreed. And Eli happily sat in his carseat talking to his toys while we packed up camp and called it good. The hike really was pretty amazing. And we enjoyed all of the camping gear we took with us (Eli played in tent, we used stove for dinner, etc.). It lead me to wonder if we're onto something... could daytime camping be the new thing? We drove home along the Columbia River to a really, amazingly beautiful sunset. With the AC on. And didn't look back... except to look at our darling, little baby who was clearly never going to go to sleep in that tent.
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