Fun times.

So, I'm home, safe and sound. Spent Friday evening all the way to Sunday early afternoon camping at good ole Fort Casey's camping area. As requested it only rained at night after we'd gone to bed, with the slight exception of a bit of drizzle this Sunday morn.

Our water's back on, has been since Friday night I guess. Either way, I'm incredibly grateful, spending a few days without a shower is tolerable but not necessarily something I enjoy. Wish I'd taken pictures of my outdoor excursions, perhaps I'll find some to link before I post.

Got tackled a few times all over a tennis ball but ya know, I miss that kind of pointless fun. Flew a kite ("let's go fly a kite up to the highest height..."), managed to keep it flying from the fort all the way back to our campsite (tougher than it sounds). Ran up and down the steep grass covered hill (I swear it was almost vertical) on the right side of one of the batteries (side of this battery I think: Battery Seymour), tried to kick the soccer ball I brought up to the top where Mips was sitting. We thought the batteries were fall out shelters as a sign in one had said. Mips made me walk through one with her. You have to understand there are no working lights in any part of the fort, and not much is open to the public anymore, much less than what was open when I was kid. No one ever died at the fort (least not that I know of), it was never used in any war or anything. Either way, it still creeps me out walking through any part of the fort where you can't see daylight directly ahead of you and have that darkness at your back.

Yesterday evening we walked along the beach after dinner as the tide was coming in. Mips decided it would be a good idea to take our shoes off, stand on some driftwood, and let the waves splash on our feet. Well for one, she's a chicken, and after a wave finally hit high enough to touch our feet she screamed the whole time the water was rushing over us. For two, she didn't roll her pant legs up enough so to get her to put her shoes back on I had to suggest I strip down to my shorts and she put my properly rolled up pants on in place of hers. This was all highly entertaining, especially since I gave up on standing on the log as a lot of the waves were barely coming close to touching us but she just stood there waiting. A few more large waves came and she kept begging me to come stand with her, but I just sat back grinning at how cute she was being, like some little kid...so not in a bad way.

Later on we went up to the main part of the fort with head-lamps (ya know the dorky ass but rather handy flashlights you wear on your head...hands free yay for us). This is where the real fun began. Park rules, no one in the fort after dusk... what fun is that?

Well, when we first got to the fort we noticed a park ranger telling a group of people it was time to leave the park, or so we assumed as we weren't close enough to hear the conversation but did notice the group disperse. Here's where the fun begins. Evading the rangers...dun dun... We hid out of view of the ranger's car and waited to see where he'd go and a few minutes later we heard someone in a vehicle powering through the walkway below us. I crept out of hiding to see who and where this person was. I had originally thought it was the ranger in his car but it turned out to be someone in a John Deere utility cart. The path this guy was taking was unclear, I did assume however that he might continue along the path below us and then circle up and around to the path up where we were so we had to move fast if my assumption was right. We crouched down wedged between a wall and some prickly bushes until we realized I had been correct. Hid in the shadows just under the two slats of cement ceiling you see in this pic. We had to move again just in case and fast out of sight in some alcove type area just out of sight of where the picture was taken...it got real exciting, well until my thigh cramped then it was only exciting. After the ranger in the cart passed us we waited. It got quiet we came out of hiding moved around...heard the cart again! The ranger was making another pass this time with lights. Back into hiding, but we heard the cart stop and freaked out thinking maybe this time he'd get out of the cart. Ran off into the grass trying to act as if we had come up from the beach and were walking back to camp. We aren't sure if the ranger saw us or not, either way, he left us alone and went about his search. Eventually we heard him leave and ran back up, watched some boats pass, caught our breath, walked around a bit more, heard the cart on occasion and hid, but all in all, made it back to camp well after dusk feeling rather proud of ourselves for not getting caught. I live for that kind of running around, hiding in the grass, acting like someone's after us kind of fun. Sure, I was incredibly paranoid that we'd get caught the second time around and get yelled at cause it would be rather obvious that we'd hidden from the rangers, but no matter we had fun. Spent an hour in my car cooling down and talking.

Camping with my dad isn't really just camping. I'll say we weren't roughing it but we weren't being too spoiled. I don't consider it camping if you're in a camper or an RV, we were in tents, covered well by tarps, with our sleeping bags and air pads (not quite an air mattress that's too spoiled). My dad made mac & cheese with cheddarwurst (my fave) the first night, french toast and sausage Saturday for breakfast, grilled cheese for lunch, steak, salad and wild rice for dinner, smores of course, and Sunday's breakfast was pancakes and bacon...I think I eat better camping with my dad than I do living in my mom's house...that's just sad.

Awesome time had by all even though my dad had broken his baby toe Thursday night in Karate and couldn't do much but hobble 'round camp. If any of you are interested, more pictures of the fort can be found here.