The Shortest Camping Trip in History?

We knew we wanted to try camping with Dylan before the summer was over. However, being the great planners that we are, we decided just a tiny bit late. Fortunately, we we able to secure a small spot at our local campgrounds at Lake Chabot. The spot is about a 25 minute drive from our home. We figured that if it started to turn into a disaster, we could pack up and go home.

Dylan is ready to go camping. Let's go!

Is there any room for another bag?




We were joined by our good friends Brooke, Pete and their daughter Maisey for a Saturday to Sunday camping trip. We got a late start getting there because being we tried to pack our house into our vehicle for this overnight trip. Then we figured we needed more food and stopped at the store to pick up some more.

We finally got to the teeny spot by 4:30 pm, just in time for a short walk to see the vista of Lake Chabot (which is beautiful), and return to our spot to set up our borrowed tent and get ready to grill some burgers for dinner.

Even though this was a whirlwind camping trip, we had a blast just the same hanging out with great folks. Bill and Pete played guitar for everyone. Dylan and Maisey took turns driving the car and ate pistachios. Brooke and I chatted, as usual. We started a fire on the grill and had wonderful burgers, snacks and wine, and the night was almost perfect. Perfect, except for the headlights from cars that are coming down the road next to our spot, and perfect, except that we forgot Dylan's froggie at home and had to find a somewhat suitable substitute, perfect except for the 2 drunks having a very loud conversation by the nearest dumpster, perfect except for the large family camping trip that caused a huge rucus at 2 am, and perfect except for the sound of the trains and the helicopters coming through Oakland all night.

The next morning, we continued our lazy last summer hurrah with the perfect morning weather. We spent the morning munching on the abundance of food we brought, walking around the campgrounds, chasing Dylan who has decided that running up and down the road was the fun, and watching Dylan have fun with ice and juice.All in all, we learned that Lake Chabot was entirely too close to the city to be peacefully quiet at night, but it reaffirms that with good company, the venue isn't as important, Like I said, we had a blast nonetheless and I would consider Dylan's first camping trip a success.